Texas Resident Sentenced for Conviction of Money Laundering

PITTSBURGH, PA - A resident of Sachse, TX, has been sentenced in federal court to 4 months of imprisonment to be followed by 3 years of supervised release on his conviction of money laundering, United States Attorney Eric G. Olshan announced today.

United States District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan imposed the sentence on Tien Nguyen, 34, of Sachse, TX.

According to information presented to the court, individuals involved in the scheme convinced elderly or otherwise vulnerable persons, through deceit, to send their funds to accounts set up at various banks and brokerage houses. The accounts were created in the names of other victims whose personal identification information had been stolen (PII accounts). Nguyen, as part of the money laundering aspect of the scheme, accessed the PII accounts, used a portion of the money to make payments on his credit cards and mortgage, and then sent the bulk of the funds to the leader of the money laundering portion of the scheme, Thien Phuc Tran. The Court ordered Nguyen to pay restitution to the victims who lost money in the sum of $259,122.16.

Assistant United States Attorneys Stephen R. Kaufman and Robert S. Cessar prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

United States Attorney Olshan commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Secret Service for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Nguyen.