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$827,000 Through one account kept money-laundering case alive
The court said Sunna Sepetu’s Logitech account alone took in 16 transfers over nine months, a pattern that supported the jury’s verdict. The panel also said the trial judge did not err on willful blindness, good faith or the government’s closing arguments.
In the First Circuit, a paper business was not enough to make dirty money look clean. The court left the money-laundering conspiracy convictions of Nafis Quaye and Sunna Sepetu in place after finding the government had shown a years-long scheme built on proxy accounts, borrowed names and false commerce.
The case came out of the District of New Hampshire. Trial evidence showed Quaye used friends and family to register businesses and open bank accounts on his behalf, including one operated by Sepetu, while the money moved under the cover of a business that claimed it bought goods in the United States and shipped them overseas.
The money trail told its own story
The panel pointed to repeated large transfers into the business accounts from a U.S.-based account in Maryann Schirmer’s name, followed by fast withdrawals, cash use and personal spending. One account controlled by Sepetu received 16 transfers over nine months totaling $827,000.
The lack of ordinary business records mattered too. Quaye and Sepetu offered only a few invoices, and none were tied to the companies at the center of the case. That let the jury treat the export story as a cover for moving illegally obtained funds in and out of the accounts.
The verdict stayed intact
The defendants also attacked the jury instructions, arguing the trial judge mishandled willful blindness and good faith. The First Circuit rejected those arguments as well.
Sepetu separately challenged the government’s use of collective references to the defendants in opening and closing arguments and objected to her guideline calculation. The panel rejected her appeal and affirmed her sentence, leaving the convictions and punishment standing.