Richard Charles Appelbaum III, 40, of Maryland Heights, has been sentenced to three years in prison for his involvement in laundering proceeds from various fraud schemes. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri announced that Appelbaum was also ordered to repay $2.3 million.
Appelbaum pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy to commit money laundering, admitting that he processed fraudulent funds through cryptocurrency platforms. Between February 2022 and April 2023, he and his co-conspirators opened at least 24 business bank accounts under false pretenses, using industries such as real estate, auto consulting, and boating supplies to give the accounts a facade of legitimacy. These accounts received $8.3 million from schemes including Business Email Compromise (BEC) and romance fraud, in which victims were tricked into wiring funds.
During the conspiracy, Appelbaum laundered at least $3.5 million in criminal proceeds, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported. He was trained by an individual identified in court documents as “E.S.,” a significant player in cryptocurrency. E.S. instructed Appelbaum on how to create business and cryptocurrency accounts, conceal cryptocurrency transactions from financial institutions, and make daily debit transactions to disguise the accounts’ illicit nature.
One significant fraudulent transaction involved a Florida title company wiring $2.2 million in escrow funds to one of Appelbaum’s accounts, which he falsely claimed was for consulting services. Appelbaum also recruited others to assist in laundering funds, transferring them between business accounts, personal accounts, and cryptocurrency platforms to obscure their origins.
