Maryland Man Sentenced for Laundering Fraud Money

ST. LOUIS - A Maryland man has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison and ordered to repay $5.45 million to victims of a series of frauds, U.S. Attorney Thomas C. Albus announced Wednesday.

James Marcus Dyett, 60, pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy in November. He admitted conspiring with at least seven other people to conceal the source of funds obtained via fraud and transfer that money into cryptocurrency accounts or other accounts. The conspirators received at least 34 wire transfers totaling $8.3 million from at least 36 victims of business email compromise (BEC) wire fraud schemes or romance fraud.

Dyett began communicating with "Victoria" via WhatsApp in October of 2022. Victoria hired Dyett for a job at Coins2Trade, which she described as a cryptocurrency transaction processor, in exchange for a 3.5% commission on transactions he processed. Victoria provided paperwork to the defendant to form JMD Consultant Services LLC in Maryland and then introduced him to Richard Charles Appelbaum and "E.S." They trained him via WhatsApp messages and phone calls, telling him to create business entities and open numerous business and personal bank accounts and accounts at various cryptocurrency exchanges under his own name. They told Dyett to provide the account information to Victoria and E.S. and move funds from the bank accounts into cryptocurrency accounts as soon as possible. Dyett and his conspirators falsely claimed on the corporate organization documents that the businesses would be involved in auto purchasing consulting, boating supplies, real estate management and life skills consulting when their real purpose was attempting to appear legitimate and receive large wire transfers. Between February 2022 and April 2023, the conspirators opened at least 24 business bank accounts at various institutions.

Dyett's co-defendant, Lisa Mae Burnett, was listed on the corporate documents of JMD and met him at a bank in April of 2023, where they tried to arrange for a fraudulent $2 million wire transfer.

Burnett, 64, is serving a five-year prison sentence. She was also ordered to repay $5.45 million.

Appelbaum, 41, is serving a three-year sentence. He was ordered to repay $2.3 million.

The FBI and the Baltimore County (Maryland) Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Bateman prosecuted the case.

Report fraud to ic3.govLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link., the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.