ROCHESTER, N.Y.—A Rochester man has pleaded guilty in a sprawling fraud case that prosecutors said involved moving hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen credit-card funds through accounts at Evolve Federal Credit Union before converting the money into Bitcoin, according to WHEC.com.
Timothy Wadsworth, 35, admitted participating in multiple fraud operations, including unauthorized credit-card transactions, fraudulent COVID-era relief applications, unemployment fraud and a romance scam. Prosecutors said Wadsworth and others used stolen credit-card account numbers to process unauthorized payments through a Stripe account before moving the funds into bank accounts at HSBC and Evolve Federal Credit Union, then converting the money into Bitcoin through Coinbase, WHEC.com said.
Evolve is based in El Paso, Texas.
Federal prosecutors said that between March 10 and May 15, 2020, Wadsworth attempted to process 310 fraudulent transactions totaling more than $1.6 million through Stripe. Of those, 116 transactions totaling approximately $730,728 were initially successful, according to WHEC.com. Authorities alleged several transfers exceeded $10,000 as funds were routed through financial accounts and cryptocurrency exchanges.
Prosecutors further alleged that between May 2020 and May 2021, Wadsworth and co-conspirators submitted nine false Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications seeking pandemic-relief funds for which they were not eligible. Three of the applications were approved, resulting in payments totaling $161,200, according to WHEC.com. Wadsworth also submitted six fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loan applications totaling more than $91,000, with two loans funded for approximately $41,000 combined, prosecutors said.
In addition, prosecutors said Wadsworth fraudulently collected more than $65,800 in unemployment benefits and participated in a romance scam that allegedly stole $42,000 from one victim and another $26,000 from six additional victims.