Fitness
NYC man pleads guilty to money laundering after theft from Columbus-based Rogue Fitness
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A New York City man has pleaded guilty to money laundering crimes after a nearly $500,000 theft from Columbus-based fitness equipment manufacturer Rogue Fitness.
Aleksandr Bogomolny, 53, of the Brooklyn borough of NYC, pleaded guilty on Friday in U.S. District Court in Columbus to conspiring to commit and committing money laundering through a sports betting app after using computer software to steal money from Rogue Fitness, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
In 2021, Rogue Fitness reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center that it had identified 78 outgoing transfers from a PayPal account between March 29 and April 29, 2021, totaling nearly half a million dollars.
While investigating, the FBI discovered a banking trojan horse program that had infected the computer of a customer service employee just prior to the transfers, according to the release. The specific program found on the employee laptop is known by the FBI to steal banking credentials and usually targets corporate victims.
A trojan horse program is a type of malware that hides within a legitimate file or program to gain access to a victim’s computer system, according to Norton antivirus software.
The stolen money was transferred to 22 different credit card numbers, including to Bogomolny’s Bank of America card, according to the release. Further investigation of Bogomolny’s bank shows that between December 2019 and July 2021, he laundered more than $247,000 in stolen money through his account.
Bogomolny also used the online gambling site FanDuel to conspire to launder money, stealing a victim’s identity and using it to create a FanDuel account, the release said. Criminal proceeds were then deposited into the account and later withdrawn.
In total, Bogomolny and others used this scheme to deposit nearly $572,000 and withdraw more than $485,000 of the criminal proceeds.
In 2023, Bogomolny met with undercover FBI agents and agreed to launder $20,000, presented as money from drug sales, for a 6% fee, according to the release. Throughout 2023 and 2024, Bogomolny sent $18,800 of the original $20,000 back to the undercover FBI agents.
Bogomolny later agreed to accept another $50,000 from the undercover agents. He met up with the agents in April 2024 and accepted the money, at which point he was arrested.
Money laundering and conspiring to launder money are federal crimes punishable by up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Congress sets the maximum statutory sentence, and sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court at a future hearing.
@Colebehr_report
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