Greek National Sentenced To Eight Years On Money Laundering Charges

BOSTON – A Greek man was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Boston today for his role in perpetrating a multi-million dollar scheme which defrauded developers of $7.9 million.

Evripides Georgiadis, 49, of Larisa, Greece, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to eight years and six months in prison and ordered to pay $8.4 million in restitution. In May 2014, following a three-week trial, Georgiadis was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 11 counts of wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Between 2007 and 2011, Georgiadis participated in a conspiracy to defraud developers who were seeking financing for large-scale alternative energy and commercial projects by pretending to be a representative of a multi-billion dollar fund located in Luxembourg. Georgiadis and his co-conspirators convinced developers to give deposits between $300,000 and $1 million to this fraudulent fund with the promise that the deposit would be fully refundable. Georgiadis and his co-conspirators spent and transferred the developers' deposit money out of the country, and the fraudulent fund never financed any projects. In perpetrating this scheme, Georgiadis helped create fake letters of credit and a phantom New Zealand bank, all to reassure developers about the safety of their deposits.

Over $7 million was stolen from victims, including $600,000 which had originally been provided by the West Springfield financial adviser Sean Mansfield. Mansfield, in turn, had stolen the funds from his clients. In 2011, Mansfield was sentenced to 60 months in prison for defrauding his clients.

Georgiadis’s co-defendants, John Condo, Frank Barecich, and Michael Zanetti, have all been convicted. In July 2014, Condo and Barecich were sentenced to 90 months and 12 months in prison, respectively. Zanetti was sentenced to 37 months in prison.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; William P. Offord, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston; Susan Hensley, Regional Director of the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration, and Vincent B. Lisi, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division, made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Alex J. Grant and Karen L. Goodwin of Ortiz’s Springfield Branch Office.