A Rego Park man was convicted Thursday by a federal jury of money laundering and bank fraud (Photo iStock)
Sept. 7, 2022 By Christian Murray
A Rego Park man who laundered millions of dollars from a Medicaid scam and an array of other schemes was convicted Thursday of financial crimes, according to federal authorities.
Djonibek Rahmankulov, 34, was convicted by a jury in federal court on counts of money laundering, bank fraud and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. Rahmankulov, who faces decades in prison, is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 5, 2023.
“Djonibek Rahmankulov exploited the United States financial system to launder millions of dollars of proceeds of fraud,” said Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. “He lied repeatedly to banks in furtherance of his illegal money laundering enterprise. “
According to court records, Rahmankulov set up a network of shell companies between 2017 and September 2020 that he used to launder millions of dollars in proceeds that he generated through multiple scams.
Such scams included working with hackers to gain control of people’s bank accounts—in order to transfer their funds to accounts opened by Rahmankulov and his co-conspirators.
Other scams involved working with pharmacies that were engaged in bilking Medicare and Medicaid. These pharmacies, which used Rahmankulov to launder their gains, submitted millions of dollars of fraudulent billing for HIV medications that they did not dispense.
Rahmankulov, according to authorities, created companies to receive these proceeds. He also used them to fund an unlicensed money transmitting business that illegally moved money to and from multiple countries, including Iran.
In 2020, shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic began, Rahmankulov filed fraudulent applications for COVID-19 relief loans from the Small Business Administration for the multiple companies he controlled. He then laundered the proceeds of the loans and grants through these companies.
As part of the overall money laundering scheme, Rahmankulov made a number of false statements to financial institutions when he opened the accounts and executed transactions.
Rahmankulov faces up to 20 years in prison on the money laundering charge; up to 30 years in prison for bank fraud; and 5 years in prison for conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.
