On December 19, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that Evaldas Rimasauskas, 51, of Vilnius, Lithuania, had been sentenced to 5 years in prison for his role in a business email compromise scam. He will be removed from the U.S. to Lithuania upon his release.
U.S. District Judge George Daniels ordered Rimasauskas to pay restitution of $26,479,079.24. He did not impose any fine. Rimasauskas previously agreed to forfeit $49,738,559.41 to the government.
The business email compromise scheme
In 2013, Rimasauskas traveled to Riga, Latvia to register himself as the director and sole shareholder of a fictitious company with the same name as a Taiwanese hardware manufacturer called Quanta Computer. He also opened a bank account in the name of the company at a Latvian bank.
In October 2013, Rimasauskas’ associates sent a series of phishing emails to a multinational Internet company that did business with Quanta. The emails, which appeared to be from employees of Quanta, stated that their banking information had changed and asked for all future payments to be directed to the Latvian bank account. The real Quanta Computer company maintained bank accounts in Asia.
During the month of October 2013, the Internet company transferred more than $23 million to the Latvian bank account controlled by Rimasauskas. The company attempted to stop the transfers after it was contacted by Quanta regarding the status of the payments. This led to an investigation by Latvian authorities who ultimately concluded that a fraud had been perpetrated and ordered the funds to be returned.
Rimasauskas submitted fake documents to both the Latvian bank and the Latvian courts.
Ultimately he lost control of the stolen funds.
In June 2015, Rimasauskas opened another bank account in the name of Quanta Computer this time in Cyprus. He provided bank statements from the fraudulent Latvian account along with fake contracts and invoices.
In August 2015, Rimasauskas’ associates sent a series of phishing emails to an online social media company that did business with Quanta. The emails asked for all future payments to be directed to the Cyprus bank account.
Over the next month, the social media company transferred almost $99 million to the Cyprus account. From there, the stolen funds were transferred to banks in Cyprus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Hong Kong, among other places.
Approximately $26.5 million of the funds were never recovered.
The indictment
Both of the victim companies were based in the U.S. Rimasauskas was indicted in the Southern District of New York because some of the transfers were wired through New York. He was arrested in Lithuania in March 2017, and extradited to the U.S. in August 2017.
The guilty plea
Rimasauskas pled guilty to one count of wire fraud in March 2019. At the time of his plea, he admitted that he pretended to be a director of Quanta, and that he signed fraudulent documents and contracts.
According to prosecutors, Rimasauskas did not induce the victims to make the initial transfers, but he helped to create the infrastructure to facilitate them.
The sentencing hearing
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eun Choi told Judge Daniels that the government is still attempting to recover around $5 million that is sitting frozen in bank accounts around the world. She said the rest of the $26.5 million that was stolen from the social media company is lost.
“I want to make an honest and sober living”
-Evaldas Rimasauskas
Rimasauskas apologized and said he regrets that he committed this crime. He said this is the last time he will find himself in a courtroom, and he wants to return to his native country and hug his relatives.
In his sentencing submission, Rimasauskas argued that he should receive a lesser sentence because he played a minor role in the conspiracy.
The government countered that he played the key role of a money launderer for over two years.
Judge Daniels sided with the government, saying that Rimasauskas played a major role in the scheme.
He also noted that this was his first offense, and he attempted to cooperate with the government.
Rimasauskas will be given credit for nearly three years of time served in prison in Lithuania and the U.S.
He is currently incarcerated at MDC Brooklyn.