Togo illegal alien sentenced for role in money laundering conspiracy

Date: March 20, 2026

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

Baltimore, MD – A federal judge sentenced an illegal alien from Togo, today, for his role in a money laundering scheme totaling nearly $3 million in losses.

U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Maddox sentenced Gedeon “Papa Kwam” Agbeyome of Silver Spring, Maryland, to six years in prison, followed by one year of supervised release, for conspiracy to commit money laundering and aggravated identity theft. Judge Maddox also ordered him to pay $2,938,424.65 in restitution and issued a $2.8 million preliminary order of forfeiture.

As part of the scheme, Agbeyome received at least $2.8 million in proceeds from a business email compromise fraud scheme. Agbeyome used bank accounts that he opened and controlled through shell entities and the identities of other real people. He then pocketed a portion of the fraud proceeds in exchange for engaging in the financial crime.

Kelly O. Hayes, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, announced the sentence with Special Agent in Charge Kareem A. Carter, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) – Washington, D.C. Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Christopher R. Heck, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) – Maryland; and Acting Special Agent in Charge George Golliday, Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Inspector General (EPA-OIG).

According to court documents, from June 2021 through May 2023, Agbeyome participated in a significant money laundering conspiracy that led to the prosecution of at least 14 individuals. As part of the conspiracy, the co-conspirators created shell entities that did not have significant physical operations, business premises, legitimate business activities, gross revenues, cost of goods sold, nor reported wages for employees. The co-conspirators used the shell entities to open and control bank accounts that they then used to receive fraud proceeds.

Additionally, Agbeyome admitted he participated in an underlying wire-fraud conspiracy. This scheme involved defrauding a victim trust that was established to remediate environmental contamination at a California manufacturing facility. Agbeyome also admitted that he used three real people’s personal identifying information in connection with the wire fraud conspiracy. Agbeyome used the stolen identities to open multiple bank accounts and to conceal his connection to a CashApp account. Agbeyome and his co-conspirators then used these financial accounts to launder money.

As part of the conspiracy, co-conspirators used a business email compromise scheme to deceive the victim entities. Co-conspirators tricked the victims into sending money to the shell entity bank accounts Agbeyome controlled, and others, through look-a-like email addresses. The victims typically thought they were sending money to contractors or vendors.

After gaining access to the fraudulently obtained funds, Agbeyome engaged in multiple financial transactions in quick succession. He did this to conceal the nature, location, source, and ownership of the funds, and to control the wire-fraud proceeds. These illegal acts helped promote the underlying business email compromises and other fraud schemes.

Agbeyome and his co-conspirators met in person, and used phone calls, Telegram, WhatsApp, and text messages to communicate.

U.S. Attorney Hayes commended the HSI-led Document and Benefit Fraud/Mid-Atlantic El Dorado Task Force, and thanked IRS-CI and EPA-OIG for their work in the investigation. Ms. Hayes also thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Harry Gruber, Bijon A. Mostoufi, Jared M. Beim, and recognized Paralegal Specialist Joanna B.N. Huber, for her valuable assistance.

IRS-CI is the law enforcement 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. It is the only federal law enforcement agency with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code. IRS-CI has 18 field offices located across the U.S. and maintains an international presence through attaché posts abroad.