MARYLAND – A Texas man has pleaded guilty to international money laundering in a fraud scheme, which involved the Worcester County Treasurer’s Office.
42-year-old Jon Briceno of Katy, Texas, pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiracy to commit money laundering relating to his laundering of more than $8,751,523.07 in proceeds from various frauds.
We’re told Briceno was an organizer or leader of the money laundering conspiracy, which involved multiple participants nationwide. He reportedly routinely directed co-conspirators across the country in connection with the scheme, including by:
- Recruiting them to open bank accounts in their names or the names of various purported businesses to launder the fraud proceeds
- Informing them when proceeds of schemes of defraud were deposited into bank accounts they controlled
- Directing the co-conspirators regarding the intermediate accounts to which the proceeds were to be transferred
- Directing the co-conspirators to confirm him that the co-conspirators had in fact received and transferred the proceeds as requested, including photos of online bank statements and online wire transfer confirmations, mobile device screenshots of confirmations of transfers of funds via Zella, and mobile device screenshots of online bank statements
The Worcester County Treasurer’s Office was among the victims of the scheme. On 12 separate occasions between November 20, 2020, and January 21, 2021, the Worcester County Treasurer’s Office was fraudulently convinced to provide a total of $167,745.18 in funds to a bank account controlled by Briceno as a result of a business email compromise scheme, in which an accounting manager with Worcester County received fraudulent emails directing that payments be made in response to a bill be made to the account controlled by Briceno.
Between June 2020 and February 20, 2024, Briceno and his co-conspirators allegedly used numerous accounts to launder fraud proceeds obtained by victims across the United States, including victims from California, Illinois, Virginia, Iowa, North Carolina, Texas, Missouri, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Indiana, South Carolina, Ohio, and Alabama. Additionally, there were international victims from Australia, Singapore, Luxembourg, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Thailand.
In total, Briceno launched at least $8,751,523.07 in funds that were proceeds of wire fraud, and he personally received over $1.25 million as his share of the fraudulently obtained funds. He reportedly used the funds to purchase numerous pieces of jewelry from Tiffany & Co., Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and others, numerous luxury items from designers such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Dior, and Christian Louboutin, and at least nine Rolex watches valued at more than $10,000 each. He also invested in crypto-currency using the funds and frequently gambled with large amounts of it. Briceno used the funds to lease office space that he used as a space for running a poker room in Texas.
Briceno’s Texas home was searched pursuant to a federal search warrant on June 15, 2022, at which time law enforcement identified and seized numerous bank records, money order receipts, pawn shop receipts, several bank cards, articles of incorporation documents for various shell businesses used in connection with money laundering conspiracy, and various electronic devices.
Another search warrant was expected at Briceno’s home on February 20, 2024, at which point Briceno was arrested.
Briceno faces a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison, followed by up to three years of supervised release. He’s scheduled to be sentenced in late October.
