Cincinnati woman sentenced to 2 years in prison for laundering money for online romance scammers

 

Date: Aug. 27, 2024

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

CINCINNATI — A Cincinnati woman was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 24 months in prison for laundering money for online romance scammers.

Pamela Moore, admitted in her guilty plea in February 2024 that she laundered more than $8 million in scam proceeds.

According to court documents, between 2020 and 2023, Moore’s personal and business bank accounts with multiple banks received more than $8 million in criminally derived funds. Moore personally received approximately $1.7 million of the funds, which she used or converted to Bitcoin at the direction of the scammers.

For example, Moore maintained multiple business bank accounts for PSM Custom Designs and Jewelries and used the purported jewelry business accounts solely for money laundering.

As part of her sentence, Moore will pay nearly $1.7M in restitution.

Kenneth L. Parker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Karen Wingerd, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation (CI); and Yvonne Dicristoforo, Special Agent in Charge, United States Secret Service; announced the sentence imposed by Senior U.S. District Judge Michael R. Barrett. Assistant United States Attorneys Ebunoluwa A. Taiwo and Ryan A. Keefe represented the United States in this case.

CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.