Canton Woman Sentenced for Role in BEC Scheme

BOSTON – A Canton woman was sentenced on Friday, April 16, 2021 in federal court in Boston in connection with a business email compromise (BEC) scheme.

Bintu Toure, 26, was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf to one year and one day in prison, three years of supervised release, restitution and forfeiture. In January 2021, Toure pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy.

Toure conspired with others to open numerous bank accounts in Massachusetts in the name of sham companies, as part of a BEC scheme—a sophisticated scam often targeting businesses involved in wire transfer payments. The fraud is carried out by compromising and/or “spoofing” legitimate business email accounts through social engineering or computer intrusion techniques, to cause employees of the victim company (or other individuals involved in legitimate business transactions) to transfer funds to accounts controlled by the scammers.

Through the use of fraudulent invoices and spoofed email accounts, Toure conspired to trick the victims of the scheme into wiring hundreds of thousands of dollars to bank accounts under her control. Toure and her co-conspirators then transferred funds from the accounts on to others located overseas. Over the course of the scheme, victims wired over $600,000 to fraudulent bank accounts controlled by Toure and her co-conspirators.

Acting United States Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell and Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorneys William B. Brady, of Mendell’s Criminal Division, and Jordi de Llano, Deputy Chief of Mendell’s Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.