Man gets a year in prison for recruiting money launderers – Homepage

Sonya McLean

A Louth resident who recruited a number of people to have their bank accounts used to launder money has been jailed for a year.

Innocent Aigbekaen, 31, of Mary Street North, Dundalk, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of money laundering to the value of €75,816 and €60,989 on dates between April 2016 and October 2017.

Detective Garda Jennifer Connolly told prosecutor Diana Stuart BL that Aigbekaen had been involved in a scheme over 18 months which resulted in the laundering of approximately €331,000 in cash.

At Aigbekaen’s sentencing on Monday, Judge Pauline Codd accepted evidence that Aigbekaen was “not the captain of the ship” but rather “a mule herder” who recruited several people, including his wife and colleagues, to allow their bank accounts to be were used “to obtain ill-gotten gains from this fraud”.

“He proceeded in a very reckless manner – he should have known better than to do that,” Judge Codd said.

She imposed a main sentence of five years before taking into account Aigbekaen’s guilty plea and long employment history.

Judge Codd imposed a four-year prison sentence.

She took into account a probation report which she said showed Aigbekaen had “shown limited remorse and insight” and had instead “attempted to shift the blame to (another individual) who was not involved and certainly not investigated ”.

The last three years of the sentence were suspended for three years under strict conditions.

Fergal Foley BL, defending, told Judge Codd at an earlier sentencing hearing that his client has not come to the attention of the Garda since the offence, other than being caught with cannabis for his own use. The drug case was settled “through payment and a strike,” counsel said.

He said his client came to Ireland from Nigeria in 2014 to “make a better life for himself”. He studied to improve his written and spoken English.

He asked the court to accept that Aigbekaen ultimately took responsibility for his role in the scheme.