Hungarian Man Sentenced For Scheme Selling Vehicles Over The Internet

BOSTON – A Hungarian man was sentenced today for conspiring to commit money-laundering and using a counterfeit passport in a scheme to sell vehicles over the Internet.

Zsolt Lendvai, 27, was sentenced by U.S. District Court George A. O’Toole, Jr., to two years in prison and ordered to pay $1.1 million in forfeiture and restitution to the victims. In July 2012, Lendvai pleaded guilty.

In October 2011, Lendvai, and another conspirator, Eniko Somodi, entered the United States from Hungary. While here, a conspirator identified as Z.K., provided them false passports and other identity documents and directed Lendvai and Somodi to use their new false identities to open up mailboxes and bank accounts. Other conspirators then fraudulently sold vehicles over the Internet and directed purchasers to send the purchase money to the conspiracy’s newly-opened bank accounts. Lendvai and Somodi transferred the purchase money elsewhere, often by wiring them to bank accounts in Hong Kong or elsewhere outside the U.S. More than $1 million moved through these accounts.

Sentencing for Eniko Somodi is currently scheduled for March 8, 2013.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Bruce Foucart, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations in Boston; Kevin Niland, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; and Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis made the announcement today. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott L. Garland and Veronica Lei of Ortiz’s Cybercrimes and Asset Forfeiture Units.