A Silver Spring man has been sentenced to prison for his role in a large-scale money laundering scheme tied to nearly $3 million in fraud.
U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Maddox sentenced 31-year-old Gedeon “Papa Kwam” Agbeyome to six years in prison, followed by one year of supervised release, for conspiracy to commit money laundering and aggravated identity theft. He was also ordered to pay $2,938,424.65 in restitution and faces a $2.8 million forfeiture.
According to federal authorities, Agbeyome played a key role in laundering proceeds from a business email compromise scheme that defrauded victims out of millions of dollars. Investigators say he received at least $2.8 million through bank accounts he opened and controlled using shell companies and stolen identities, keeping a portion of the funds for himself.
The scheme, which ran from June 2021 through May 2023, involved at least 14 individuals who created shell entities with no legitimate business operations. These entities were used to open bank accounts that received fraudulent wire transfers from victims who believed they were paying legitimate contractors or vendors.
Court documents state that Agbeyome also admitted to participating in an underlying wire fraud conspiracy involving a victim trust established to address environmental contamination at a manufacturing facility in California. He used the personal information of three real individuals to open financial accounts and conceal his involvement, including accounts connected to a CashApp profile.
After the funds were deposited, Agbeyome conducted multiple rapid transactions to obscure the origin and ownership of the money, helping to further the fraud and avoid detection. Authorities say he and his co-conspirators communicated through in-person meetings as well as phone calls, text messages, Telegram, and WhatsApp.
