A Columbus business lost nearly $500,000. Then, investigators checked Paypal
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- An exercise equipment manufacturer headquartered in Columbus lost nearly half a million dollars as part of a money laundering operation based in New York.
In May, federal prosecutors leveled a stack of 30 different money laundering charges against 53-year-old Brooklyn resident Aleksandr Bogomolny. After a plea agreement in October, U.S. District Court records showed that he pleaded guilty on Saturday to just two of those charges: money laundering with an interstate commerce specification, and money laundering with fraud.
Bogomolny had been tied to the siphoned funds through a Trojan virus that stole banking credentials on a Rogue Fitness employee's laptop, according to federal court documents. The exercise equipment manufacturer, headquartered at 1011 Cleveland Ave., reported to the FBI that it had found 78 suspicious transfers from the company's Paypal account over a month.
Because 90 different Rogue employees -- including the one with an infected laptop -- had access to the Paypal account and it was used for transactions with customers' banks, Bogomolny was able to hide his activity. From March 29 to April 29 in 2021, Bogomolny periodically pilfered $496,136, court records said.
From there, the money made its way to 22 different cards, including Bogomolny's with Bank of America. When investigators looked into his account, they found he had already laundered more than $247,000 in criminal funds from December 2019 to July 2021.
Separately, he had used the gambling website FanDuel to launder more money. After stealing a victim's identity, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Bogomolny would deposit criminal proceeds into a new FanDuel account, then withdraw it. He and others dropped $572,000 into the FanDuel accounts and moved $485,000 out.
Long before being arrested, FBI agents raided Bogomolny's Brooklyn home in 2022, where court records said they found an Excel spreadsheet with 341,000 different entries of personal information. They included names, addresses and Social Security numbers. Bogomolny also had 10 different credit card numbers, information on four different bank accounts, and 249 gift cards containing anywhere from $5 to $250. He also had several pictures of driver's licenses and passports.
Investigators moved in on Bogomolny by going undercover. Agents approached him in 2023 claiming to have $20,000 from illegal drug activities, and he agreed to launder their money for a 6% fee. After wiring the agents $18,000 through multiple transactions, they asked him to launder another $50,000. When he met them to pick up the funds in April 2024, the U.S. Attorney's Office said they arrested him.
Bogomolny could face up to 20 years in prison at sentencing, which federal court records did not show a scheduled date for as of Friday.