Florida man who helped scam Ottawa treasurer sentenced to 12.5 years in prison

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A Florida man who helped scam the City of Ottawa out of $128,000 by spoofing the email of a senior executive has been sentenced to twelve and one-half years in prison.

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Elvin Lewis Jr. was sentenced to 151 months behind bars more than a year after being found guilty on 11 counts of money laundering.

U.S. District Court Judge Roy K. Altman said Lewis was an integral part of the international fraud scheme, which netted more than $3 million by victimizing four U.S. companies and the City of Ottawa.

Lewis, 55, has always insisted he was an unwitting “money mule” for the overseas kingpins behind the scam.

In an interview Wednesday, Lewis’s defence lawyer said his client intended to pursue an appeal on both his conviction and sentence.

“(Lewis) didn’t have that much of a reaction: the sentence wasn’t that much of a surprise,” said lawyer Leonard Fenn, of Coral Gables, Fla. “The judge was highly motivated in this case because of the (financial) losses, and the high attorney turnover that slowed down the process.

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“Normally, especially here in the Southern District of Florida, things move along much more rapidly.”

Southern Florida’s U.S. District Court heard that anonymous members of a fraud ring based in China targeted former Ottawa city treasurer Marian Simulik with phoney emails that spoofed the address of the city manager and convinced her to send $128,000 to a fictitious U.S. firm in July 2018.

Simulik wired the money within hours of receiving a request from what she thought was the city manager, asking her to send the cash as part of a soon-to-be-announced deal that he had negotiated with a new city vendor.

The message came from an email address that appeared legitimate, but was from outside the city’s internal email system.

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All city emails now feature a yellow-highlighted caution that warns recipients when an email originates from an external source.

At trial, prosecutors introduced bank records and text messages to establish that Lewis knowingly used his Florida real estate firm to set up eight accounts at different banks to launder the fraud ring’s money.

Lewis used the accounts, they said, to shuffle money between accounts and blend it with other funds in an attempt to conceal its source.

Vanna Clay, a woman recruited by Lewis to help launder the cash, was given immunity from prosecution for her testimony. She told court the money-laundering operation was similar to the one portrayed on Ozark, a Netflix crime drama in which a financial planner launders money for a Mexican drug cartel.

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Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Miller said Lewis wired most of the money to a contact in China in return for a five- to 10-per-cent commission. Lewis made more than $160,000 for his role in the operation, she said.

For his part, Lewis said he did not know the source of the money he handled. “I was a money mule,” he said in a telephone interview before his trial. “Me, I’m like, ‘OK, I’m following orders. I’m just doing what I’m told.’”

But federal prosecutors introduced a raft of WhatsApp messages between Lewis and the unindicted co-conspirator, a man known only as Chong, to refute that claim.

In May 2018, for instance, Lewis complained he had moved more than $1 million for Chong, but was still receiving only five per cent “on wires that are said to be fraud … so it’s straight profit.”

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Later that month, Chong demanded more money be sent to China, but Lewis was slow to respond. “Don’t f— with us, we will f—ing f–k you up,” Chong warned.

Lewis, however, continued to drag his feet on the money transfer and proposed that they space out their outbound wires to avoid scrutiny by bank officials.

“Did I tell you am sending hitman?” Chong replied. Lewis sent more than $60,000 overseas the next week.

Simulik was victimized just weeks before Lewis’ arrest. Authorities seized more than $715,000 from his bank accounts and his car, a new Porsche.

A court hearing later this year will determine what kind of restitution Lewis must pay.