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A bank worker has been jailed for three years for money laundering and assisting organised crime.
The offences relate to an international criminal organisation called ‘The Black Axe’, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard.
Funmi Abimbola (26), of Rosses Court Terrace, Lucan, Co. Dublin, pleaded guilty to four charges of money laundering on dates in 2022.
He also pleaded guilty to one count of assisting organised crime by providing bank accounts to another for money laundering between August 2018 to February 2021.
The court heard Abimbola, who was 22 at the time of the offences, came from a good family, had attended a very good school and was working for a bank at the time of the offences.
‘The Black Axe’ recruits money mules, including a number in Ireland. Their details would be used as part of the fraud and then money mules would be used in terms of cashing out the process, the court heard.
The offences related to the laundering of money after €121,000 was stolen from a Dublin solicitors’ firm through invoice redirect fraud.
Detective Garda Ciaran Ronan of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau gave evidence that juveniles are often targeted to be used as money mules.
He told David Perry BL, prosecuting, that during the course of the investigation into the money stolen from the solicitors’ firm, gardaí uncovered further unrelated money laundering offences.
The solicitors’ firm, which was not named in court, declined to make a victim impact statement.
Judge Pauline Codd handed Abimbola a five-year sentence for his part in the scheme but suspended the final two years of it.
She noted the irony of him having worked for Bank of Ireland during the commission of some of the offences. She said he had a degree and has a masters. “He was working at the Bank of Ireland at the time.”
“It is ironic he was working in a bank” …“it’s not that he doesn’t understand the significance,” said the judge. She said he was “effectively oiling the wheels of this type of criminality.”
Judge Codd said the accused had expressed remorse and does show insight.
“Clearly he became deeply involved in it,” she said, but nonetheless, there has to be “deterrents for people involved” in these types of schemes. She said she also considered a letter from his uncle who described him as coming from a good family.
In mitigation, she noted his guilty plea which had saved State resources. She took account of his age at the time of the offences, saying in youth “there can be a lack of consequential thinking”.
The judge noted he had a very supportive family and that his mother made sure he went to a very good school.
She noted he was gifted academically, having two degrees “at this point”. She said he had “a capacity to help others”. He was a person with many good qualities but, unfortunately, the activity he got involved with “is difficult to fathom”, the judge added.
She also noted his financial benefit was a €1200 iPhone which he had paid for using cryptocurrency.
Passing sentence, Judge Codd commented : “I hope the accused can now use his talents in a pro-social way.”
Four other men in their 20s were sentenced by Judge Martin Nolan in relation to this incident in January last.
Cameron Fanning (25) of Bishop Rogan Park, Kilcullen, Co Kildare pleaded guilty to two counts of money laundering from the solicitor’s firm on November 9th, 2020 and one count of giving false information about his bank account to gardaí. He was sentenced to three and half years in prison, suspended in full on strict conditions.
Mubarak Salawu (22) of The Paddocks Drive, Adamstown, Lucan, pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering in relation to the stolen monies which were credited to his account and an unrelated charge of possessing a pair of €600 Balenciaga runners bought from the proceeds of crime. He received a suspended two-year prison sentence.
Olumide Lawal (27) of Fettercairn Road, Tallaght admitted to two counts of money laundering and possession of a €900 iPhone bought using the proceeds of crime. Lawal was given a suspended two-year sentence.
Aaron Clancy (21) of the Square, Walshtown Park, Newbridge, Co Kildare, pleaded guilty to possessing €3,020, the proceeds of money laundering, in relation to the solicitors’ firm and a further unrelated count of possessing €4,650, the proceeds of crime. Clancy received a suspended prison sentence of two years.
Imposing sentence on Salawu, Lawal and Clancy last January, Judge Nolan noted that the amounts involved were lower and all were young men with their “futures in front of them”.