Portland man sentenced to federal prison for illegally possessing a firearm and money laundering

 

Date: August 17, 2023

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

A Portland man was sentenced to federal prison today after he was caught engaging in an identity theft and bank fraud scheme and illegally possessing an AK-style assault rifle while on supervision following his release from state prison.

Quandre Leroy Hollingsworth was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison and three years' supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $73,904 in restitution to his victims.

According to court documents, on May 24, 2019, Hollingsworth was a passenger in a vehicle stopped by police as part of an ongoing investigation into money laundering and fraud activity. Hollingsworth was arrested on a parole violation warrant for a state robbery conviction. During his arrest, officers found a wallet on Hollingsworth's person containing multiple identification and credit cards bearing the names of other individuals. Officers also located a receipt for a storage locker rental.

As the investigation continued, law enforcement located a fraud report from a local credit union submitted by one of the individuals whose identification cards was found in Hollingsworth's wallet. Credit union surveillance footage obtained by law enforcement showed Hollingworth depositing four fraudulent checks and withdrawing cash between March 24-28, 2019.

On July 15, 2019, a search warrant was obtained and executed on the storage locker matching the receipt found during investigators' original traffic stop. Inside the locker, they located an AK-style assault rifle, ammunition, multiple pieces of stolen mail, passports, driver's licenses, and birth certificates. Hollingsworth's DNA profile was later matched to DNA recovered from the seized rifle.

On July 20, 2022, Hollingsworth was charged by criminal complaint with one count of bank fraud. Later, on October 18, 2022, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a two-count indictment charging Hollingsworth with illegally possessing a firearm as a convicted felon and conspiring to commit money laundering. On December 21, 2022, he pleaded guilty to both charges.

This case was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS:CI) with assistance from the Portland Police Bureau. It was prosecuted by Gregory R. Nyhus, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon.