A Sandy Springs man was sentenced on Tuesday to 10 years in prison for laundering more than $4.5 million in business email compromise schemes involving healthcare and romance fraud.
Malachi Mullings, 31, opened 20 bank accounts in the name of The Mullings Group LLC, a sham company according to court documents and evidence presented at sentencing. A U.S. Department of Justice press release said that Mullings used those accounts to launder millions of dollars of fraud proceeds from at least 2019 through July 2021.
The fraud proceeds were generated by the business email schemes targeting a healthcare benefit program and private companies. It also involved romance fraud schemes that targeted many individual victims, several of whom were elderly.
Mullings and his co-conspirators engaged in financial transactions designed to conceal the fraud proceeds, according to the press release. They used some of the proceeds to purchase luxury items, such as expensive cars and jewelry.
Mullings laundered $310,000 that was fraudulently diverted from a state Medicaid program that had been intended as reimbursement for a hospital. In another instance, he used $260,000 from a romance scam to purchase a Ferrari.
He pleaded guilty in January 2023 to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and seven counts of various money laundering offenses.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan for the Northern District of Georgia; Special Agent in Charge Linda T. Hanley of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Kansas City Region; Special Agent in Charge Demetrius D. Hardeman of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Atlanta Field Office; Assistant Director Michael Nordwall of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division; and Special Agent in Charge Eugene S. Kowel of the FBI Omaha Field Office made the announcement.
Trial Attorneys Gary Winters and Chris Wenger of the National Rapid Response Strike Force of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Connors for the Northern District of Georgia prosecuted the case.
