Bulgarian Faces US Court for Alleged Money Laundering Scheme

According to court documents, in less than one year, the criminal conspiracy netted nearly USD 1 M from US victims. Photo by EPA/BGNES

A Bulgarian man has appeared in federal court in the District of Columbia on Tuesday, charged with allegedly managing an international money laundering network based in Eastern Europe, the US Department of Justice announced.

According to court documents, in less than one year, the criminal conspiracy netted nearly USD 1 M from US victims.

Georgi Vasilev Pletnyov, 49, of Svishtov, Bulgaria, was extradited from Poland to the United States on Friday, May 21, 2010.

Magistrates have ordered his detention pending a hearing scheduled for May 28, 2010. Pletnyov is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

According to the indictment, Pletnyov allegedly participated in a scheme that operated from July 2005 through May 2006, which involved the posting of advertisements on eBay and other websites, fraudulently offering expensive vehicles and boats for sale that the conspirators did not possess.

The indictment alleges that when the U.S. victims expressed interest in the merchandise, they were contacted directly by an e-mail from a purported seller.

According to the indictment, the victims allegedly were then instructed to wire transfer payments through "eBay Secure Traders"—an entity which has no actual affiliation to eBay but was used as a ruse to persuade the victims that they were sending money into a secure escrow account pending delivery and inspection of their purchases.

Instead, the victims' funds allegedly were wired directly into bank accounts in Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland that were controlled by co-conspirators.

Pletnyov was originally charged on Jan. 9, 2008, along with five additional defendants: Roman Teodor, Ivaylo Vasilev Pletnyov, Nikolay Georgiev Minchev, Georgi Boychev Georgiev and Antoaneta Angelova Getova.

On Dec. 2, 2009, Ivaylo Pletnyov and Nikolay Minchev were sentenced to four years and 30 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in the money laundering conspiracy.

Minchev pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering on May 13, 2010, and is scheduled to be sentenced on July 23, 2010.

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