Two California Men Sentenced to Prison Terms for Conspiring to Launder the Proceeds of a Fraud from a Resident of New Jersey

NEWARK, N.J. – Two California men were sentenced to prison terms for conspiring to launder money that originated from internet-related fraud that targeted a law firm based in New Jersey and from fraudulently obtained loans from the U.S. Small Business Association, U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced.

Eric Bullard, 62, of Los Angeles, California was sentenced to 37 months in prison, and Anthony Hannah, 61, of Moreno Valley, California, was sentenced to 33 months in prison.  Bullard and Hannah each previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo to informations charging them with conspiracy to commit money laundering.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

In June 2020, Victim-1 communicated via email with a law firm in New Jersey that was advising Victim-1, a resident of Bergen County, New Jersey, on a real estate transaction.  A business email compromise is a method of wire fraud often targeting businesses or individuals working on business transactions involving high-dollar wire transactions.  The fraud is carried out by compromising and/or “spoofing” legitimate email accounts through social engineering or computer intrusion techniques to cause employees of a target company, or other individuals involved in legitimate business transactions, to conduct unauthorized transfers of funds, most often to accounts controlled by the fraud perpetrators.

A co-conspirator conducted a business email compromise and sent an email to Victim-1 purporting to be on behalf of the law firm with fraudulent instructions to wire approximately $560,000 to a bank account controlled by Bullard.  Relying on the fraudulent instructions, Victim-1 wired approximately $560,000 into a bank account controlled by Bullard.  After receiving the funds, Bullard made several cash withdrawals and transferred money to other co-conspirators, including approximately $230,000 of the fraudulently obtained proceeds to an account controlled by Hannah.   

In addition to laundering proceeds from the business email compromise, Bullard and Hannah also obtained and laundered funds from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program based on fraudulent loan applications. EIDL loans were intended to be for small businesses that were experiencing substantial financial disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  In July 2020, Bullard received into a business bank account that he controlled approximately $143,100 from an SBA EDIL loan intended for a pharmacy company with a listed location in Colorado.  Hannah also received approximately $145,400 from the SBA for a loan intended for a pharmacy company with a listed location in Idaho.  Hannah then transferred approximately $51,395 to a bank account controlled by Bullard.

In addition to the prison terms, Judge Arleo sentenced Bullard and Hannah each to three years of supervised release and to pay $705,400 in restitution to the victims.  Judge Arleo ordered forfeiture of $611,395 for Bullard and $375,400 for Hannah, constituting proceeds derived from the conspiracy.

U.S. Attorney Habba credited special agents of the FBI Woodland Park Office, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Terence G. Reilly in Newark, with the investigation.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Farhana C. Melo of the Economic Crimes Unit in Newark.

The District of New Jersey COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike Force is one of five strike forces established throughout the United States by the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute COVID-19 fraud.  The strike forces focus on large-scale, multi-state pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors.  The strike forces are interagency law enforcement efforts, using prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams designed to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

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Defense counsel:
Bullard: Brandon Minde, Esq., Cranford, New Jersey
Hannah: Areeb Salim, Esq. Assistant Federal Public Defender, Newark