Utah Attorney Charged with Conspiring to Launder Money Gained from Fraud Scheme

SALT LAKE CITY – Attorney Matthew Kober, 45, of Draper, Utah, was charged via criminal information on Monday with one count of conspiring to launder money obtained via wire fraud in federal court.

The criminal information alleges that beginning in 2018, Kober formed a sports betting software company in Nevada known as “Sindakit Software LLC” and that Kober used this Nevada company to launder money obtained from the financial fraud scheme operated by Christopher Hales. Hales has already pled guilty to operating the fraudulent scheme in a different federal case and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 20, 2021.

The information further alleges that Kober opened a bank account in the name of Sindakit Software; that Kober and Hales immediately began utilizing the account to launder the money obtained from Hales’ fraudulent scheme; that Kober accepted wire transactions from one victim of Hales’ scheme totaling $405,000; and that Kober partially redistributed the funds to prior victims of the scheme, along with wiring $15,000 to his own law firm’s bank account.  The United States is also seeking a money judgment in the amount of $259,096.41, in addition to the criminal charges filed against Kober.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys in the Utah U.S. Attorney’s Office are prosecuting the case. Special Agents from the FBI and the IRS conducted the investigation.

Criminal charges are not findings of guilt.  Individuals charged in an information are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty in court.