A bank worker has been jailed for three years for money laundering and assisting organised crime.
The offences relate to an international criminal organisation called “The Black Axe”, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard.
Funmi Abimbola (26), of Rosses Court Terrace, Lucan, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to four charges of money laundering in dates in 2022.
He also pleaded guilty to one count of assisting organised crime by providing bank accounts to another for money laundering between August 2018 to February 2021.
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The court heard Abimbola, who was 22 at the time of the offences, came from a good family and was working for a bank at the time of the offences.
The Black Axe organisation recruits money mules, including a number in Ireland. Their details would be used as part of the fraud and then money mules would be used in terms of cashing out the process, the court heard.
The offences related to the laundering of money after €121,000 was stolen from a Dublin solicitors’ firm through invoice redirect fraud.
Det Gda Ciaran Ronan of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau gave evidence that juveniles are often targeted to be used as money mules.
He told David Perry, prosecuting, that during the course of the investigation into the money stolen from the solicitors’ firm, gardaí uncovered further unrelated money laundering offences.
The solicitors’ firm, which was not named in court, declined to make a victim impact statement.
Judge Pauline Codd imposed a five-year sentence on Abimbola for his part in the scheme but suspended the final two years of it.
She noted the irony of him having worked for Bank of Ireland during the commission of some of the offences. She said he had a degree and has a master’s.
Judge Codd said the accused had expressed remorse and does show insight.
In mitigation she noted his guilty plea which had saved State resources. She took account of his age at the time of the offences, saying in youth “there can be a lack of consequential thinking”.
She noted he was gifted academically, having two degrees “at this point”. She said he had “a capacity to help others”. He was a person with many good qualities but unfortunately the activity he got involved with “is difficult to fathom”, the judge added.
Four other men in their 20s were sentenced by Judge Martin Nolan in relation to this incident in January last.
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