A money laundering case before Galway Circuit Court highlighted how scammers use patsies for them, as a business owner was sentenced for his unwitting part in a scam on another company.
Cosimo Donatella of Cregboy, Claregalway received a community service order for “reckless” conduct that led to him being duped into part of a scam that cost a business over €24,000.
A fraudster posed as being interested in investing in his business, and used those account details to steal from another business, and then pressure him to ‘return’ the money.
He was charged with a money laundering offence of converting, transferring, handling, acquiring, possessing or using property while knowing or being “reckless as to whether or not” it was the proceeds of crime.
Judge Brian O’Callaghan said that this was clearly a case of a man being “reckless” in providing his bank details to a third party, and that there was “no intention” by him to defraud anyone.
The 54 year old man was the co-owner of struggling takeaway business, and had sought investment in plans to open a new chipper.
Detective Alan Jones told the court that in November of 2018 the Cloverhill company Broderick Brothers paid €24,165.94 into what they thought was the account of a building company which had been doing work for them.
Unbeknownst to them, email accounts had been hacked, and a completely different set of bank details had been given to them.
This was the trading account of Donatella’s, who had given his business account details to a would-be investor.
He told Gardaí that a Romanian man had offered to invest €5,000 in the new business, but that over €24,000 showed up in his account.
When questioned by Gardaí, he said that the relationship with his potential investor broke down, and he came under pressure to “return” the money that was in his account.
On November 8 he took €10,000 out of the account, with the remaining sum withdrawn the following day, and gave it to this third party the court heard.
None of this money was ever recovered. Detective Jones said that he met Donatella by appointment on March 6 of 2019 to interview.
He said that the man was fully cooperative, and agreed with counsel for the defence that it was accepted that he had no involvement in the email scam.
Mr Brendan Browne BL, for the defence, said that there was one party at a loss in this case, and another who had made a financial gain from it, and his client “has unfortunately found himself in the epicentre” of the matter.
He added that the early guilty plea, tendered on July 20 of last year, was of huge benefit in what can be complicated financial cases.
A report by the probation services said that he had essentially been “duped” into the matter, and that both Donatella and his business partner were taken in by this scammer.
Judge O’Callghan pointed to this and said that they were both taken in by a scammer, but that Mr Donatella was the one before the court, because he was the one responsible for the account.
The defence had brought €2,500 to court to be paid over the injured party, which Mr Browne acknowledged was a “paltry” amount in comparison to what they lost.
But he said it was a very significant amount for his client in terms of his own financial means.
Judge O’Callaghan said that this scam, which involved handing over bank details to a third party, “has all the characteristics of being duped online”.
“Criminals rely on our gullibility and recklessness to let them in the door,” the judge warned, which is what he said had clearly happened here.
While there was clear harm done to the company which lost over €24k, the judge said that the “moral culpability” of the defendant was low.
The judge ordered the defendant to perform 120 hours of community service in lieu of an 18 month prison sentence.
