An Upstate New York man faces up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to scamming people, including taxpayers, of more than $2 million in numerous scams between March 2020 and September 2021.
U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo stated that Timothy Wadsworth, 35, of Rochester, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. Wadsworth worked with others to collect money illegally through credit card fraud, pandemic relief programs, unemployment assistance, and romantic scams.
Wadsworth processed illegal credit card transactions through a Stripe account, attempting 310 payments totaling $1,673,578 between March and May 2020. Of those, 116 transactions were successful, resulting in $730,728.22 in fraudulent revenues. He got credit card numbers from co-conspirators and performed transactions without the account owner’ permission before transferring the funds to his HSBC and Evolve Federal Credit Union accounts, converting them to Bitcoin on Coinbase, and transmitting them to co-conspirators.
Between April 22 and April 28, 2020, Wadsworth made three transfers of $148,418.59 from his Stripe account to his HSBC account.
Wadsworth also took advantage of pandemic relief programs by filing nine fraudulent Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications that included misleading statements regarding business revenue and operations. Three applications were granted, resulting in a $161,200 deposit into his bank accounts. He applied for six Payroll Protection Program loans totaling $91,219, with two funded for $20,833 and $20,416, respectively, and also provided fraudulent information about the firms.
Between May 2020 and September 2021, Wadsworth falsely collected about $65,896 in unemployment benefits from New York State, Washington State, and the Department of Labor while being ineligible.
On March 20, 2020, in a romantic fraud plot, Wadsworth obtained $42,000 from a recently widowed victim. The victim had met someone on Facebook who claimed to be an oil rig worker and asked for money to cover travel fees back to the United States. The victim was advised to wire the money to Wadsworth’s bank account.
Wadsworth scammed six more individuals of $26,000 using separate techniques.
Wadsworth faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is planned on September 10.
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