Three people in the US have been indicted in connection with a multimillion US dollar fraud that incorporated illegally obtained letters of credit (L/Cs).

The alleged scam also defrauded a US government L/C guarantee scheme.

Indictments

Prosecutors have filed a 23-count indictment charging Brett Lillemoe, Pablo Calderon and Sarah Zirbes with conspiracy, fraud and money laundering offences.

The accused are said to have used false documents to obtain loans and L/Cs for export purposes.

Ghost transactions

The L/Cs were guaranteed by the US Department of Agriculture through the Export Credit Guarantee Program (GSM-102).

The supposed exports turned out to be ghost transactions and no goods were actually shipped.

Guarantee payments

This caused some of the banks to fail on their L/C obligations but the accused, who operated their scam through several shell companies, nevertheless caused the guarantees to be paid out under GSM-102.

Lillemoe and Calderon have both pleaded not guilty.

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