An Ohio man was sentenced Wednesday for threatening to destroy a reproductive health services facility in Columbus, Ohio, and for conspiring to commit money laundering.
Mohamed Waes, 33, was sentenced to 66 months in prison, three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $273,982.08 in restitution.
“This defendant threatened to burn down a reproductive health clinic in order to intimidate its employees from providing care to patients,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“Threats of violence against healthcare providers and deception against our financial system are acts that must be punished in our courts of justice,” said U.S. Attorney Kenneth Parker for the Southern District of Ohio.
“IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) enforces the nation’s tax laws but also takes particular interest in cases where someone, for their own personal benefit, has taken what belonged to others. With both law enforcement and financial investigation expertise, our agents are uniquely qualified to assist state and federal law agencies with these types of cases by following the money,” said Special Agent in Charge Karen Wingerd of IRS-CI’s Cincinnati Field Office.
Waes pleaded guilty on February 9 to a misdemeanour charge under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which prohibits a person from intentionally interfering with or intimidating any person because that person is providing reproductive health services and to a felony charge of communicating interstate threats.
According to court documents and statements made in court, on July 5, 2022, Waes intentionally interfered with and intimidated employees of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio by threatening over the phone to burn down their building because they were providing reproductive health services.
Waes also previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. According to court documents, Waes attempted to launder $1,972,792.84 in business email compromise fraud scheme proceeds, of which he successfully laundered $273,982.08.
As part of this conspiracy, scammers created fake email domains which mimicked legitimate email domains and then sent emails to various companies impersonating vendors and asking that payments be made on actual invoices to bank accounts controlled by Waes and others.
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