Information for Victims in Large Cases
Case Name: US v. Sorin Becheru
Sorin Becheru was indicted by a Dallas-based federal grand jury for conspiring to commit fraud in connection with access devices from March 2016 through May 2018. On March 3, 2022, the FBI completed the removal of Becheru from Romania to the Northern District of Texas. According to the indictment, Becheru and his co-conspirators allegedly used point-of-sale memory scraping malware to obtain consumers’ credit card information from victim servers located in the U.S. They then allegedly sold the numbers on darkweb carding forums, including “Vendetta” and “Tony Montana.” Buyers used the stolen credit card numbers to purchase goods and services. Becheru—who used various online identities, including t0r.creep.im, turan1@jabbim.com, and buchetta@jabb3r.de — allegedly possessed and sold credit card information for millions of cards. At one point, Becheru was in possession of information for more than 240,000 credit cards belonging to victims located in the Northern District of Texas and elsewhere. Becheru is awaiting trial, which is scheduled to begin on August 28, 2023.
United States v. Greenlaw, et al (UDF)
On January 21, 2021, a jury convicted defendants Hollis Morrison Greenlaw, Benjamin Lee Wissink, Cara Delin Obert, and Jeffrey Brandon Jester of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and eight substantive counts of securities fraud. Between January 2011 and December 2015, the defendants engaged in a scheme to defraud using investment fund entities known as United Development Funding III LP, United Development Funding IV, and United Development Funding Income Fund V (collectively "UDF entities"). The UDF entities were based out of Grapevine, Texas.
US v. Wilhan Martono (CityXGuide)
In June 2020, the website cityxguide.com (“CityXGuide”)—a leading source of online advertisements for prostitution and sex trafficking—was seized by Homeland Security Investigations pursuant to a warrant. Wilhan Martono, the creator, owner, and operator of CityXGuide, was charged in a 28-count indictment with promotion of prostitution and reckless disregard of sex trafficking, interstate racketeering conspiracy (facilitating prostitution), interstate transportation in aid of racketeering (facilitating prostitution), and money laundering. In August 2021, Martono pled guilty to Promotion and Facilitation of Prostitution and Reckless Disregard of Sex Trafficking in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2421A and Conspiracy to Engage in Interstate and Foreign Travel and Transportation In Aid of Racketeering Enterprises in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371.
Martono created, owned, and operated a network of websites, including CityXGuide, that posted hundreds of thousands of prostitution advertisements in locations across the United States and around the world. CityXGuide allowed pimps, prostitutes, and brothels to post and pay for advertisements that featured an explicit list of “intimate activities,” along with nude or partially nude photographs, a physical description, work hours, methods of payment, and contact information for the female being advertised.
Martono purchased the domain names of CityXGuide and its related websites, purchased and maintained the servers that hosted the websites, and purchased the server space, server equipment, and blocks of Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses—including more than 95 unique IP addresses—to operate the websites.
US v. Kristijan Krstic et al.
According to the indictment, the defendants were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. They allegedly helped create and market more than 20 fraudulent investing platforms, including Options Giants, Banking Option, Aeon Options, Option Riders, Bancde Options, Instant Options, Fast Options, Elite Options, Start Options, Crypto Trading World, Dragon Mining, Trinity Mining, BTC Mining Factory, Bitcoin Trading World, BTC Trader Online, BTC Falcon, Perpetual Energy, Hedger Tech, Go Solar Mining, Perfect-Options, and others.
United States v. Max Joseph Chilson, et. al.
Between March 2009 and March 2011, the defendants allegedly engaged in a scheme to fraudulently induce timeshare property owners to send them money. The telemarketers obtained lists containing contact information for timeshare property owners (victims) and during the telemarketing telephone call to the victim, promised buyers for their timeshares. To consummate the promised sale of the property, the telemarketer instructed the victim to pay “closing costs” for the sale, usually between $900 to $3,000. Once the victim sent the money, either by check, credit card, or wire transfer, the telemarketer or customer service representative would make excuses and delay the promised “closing” for approximately 90 days, so as to prevent the victim from successfully stopping payment on the check or obtaining a charge back on the credit card.