BOSTON – A Lynn man was sentenced on Sept. 12, 2022 for his involvement in a scheme to defraud a financial institution and to obtain money from its customers’ accounts using fraudulent identification documents.
Judemario Josaphat, Jr., 26, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper to 25 months in prison and three years of supervised release. On Jan. 20, 2022, Josaphat pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
Josaphat participated in and, at times, directed a scheme to defraud a financial institution. To carry out the scheme, Josaphat and others used fraudulent identification documents, among other means, to withdraw money from customers’ accounts at a federally insured bank in the form of checks and cash. The fraudulently obtained funds were then deposited in other bank accounts opened in the names of fictitious business entities before being withdrawn again. Between December 2017 and February 2018, Josaphat and his co-conspirators sought to withdraw over $800,000 from customers’ accounts, resulting in losses to the bank of over $350,000.
United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; and Ketty Larco-Ward, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Leslie A. Wright and Christopher J. Markham of Rollins’ Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.