A 30-year-old Florida woman pleaded guilty today to conspiring to launder millions of dollars from American fraud victims to a co-conspirator abroad, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
According to court documents, Cristine Petitfrere, 30, who operated an LLC called GlamGoddessArtistry, wired over $2.7 millions of victims’ money to an unnamed co-conspirator in Ghana in exchange for a share of the funds, totaling “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
After receiving money from victims of the scams, Petitfrere kept a portion as a fee and funneled the remainder to her co-conspirator overseas.
“Romance scams cause not only significant losses but also profound emotional harm to countless individuals,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.
“This prosecution underscores the department’s efforts to dismantle the criminal networks that engage in these sophisticated financial schemes to exploit vulnerable Americans.”