Former GE Executive Convicted At Trial Of Fraud And Identity Theft

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the conviction in Manhattan federal court of WILSON DANIEL FREITA DA COSTA of one count of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft for his role in a scheme to use forged documents on Angolan Government letterhead to deceive a subdivision of the GE Company and the Angolan Government.  The jury convicted DA COSTA yesterday following a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “As a unanimous jury of his peers has found, Wilson Da Costa brazenly used forged documents to deceive a subdivision of the GE Company and the Angolan Government, causing hundreds of millions of dollars to be disbursed.  The scheme further committed the Angolan Government to purchase expensive equipment that it had not agreed to purchase – all so that Da Costa could receive millions of dollars for himself on the back end.  Thanks to the hard work of the career prosecutors of this Office and our law enforcement partners at HSI, Da Costa has now been held to account for his fraudulent conduct.”

As reflected in the Superseding Indictment, public filings, and the evidence presented at trial:

In or about October 2017, DA COSTA, the former Chief Executive Officer of GE Angola, disseminated fake documentation on Angolan Government letterhead, purportedly signed by officials from the Angolan Government and purportedly showing the Angolan Government’s commitment to purchase more GE-manufactured turbines than the Angolan Government had actually agreed to purchase.  These forged documents were then used to justify and support payouts from a $1.1 billion loan from a subdivision of the GE Company to the Angolan Government.  Subsequently, when questions arose about the number of turbines the Angolan Government had actually purchased, DA COSTA lied and continued to rely on the same forged documents that he had previously disseminated. For his efforts, DA COSTA received millions of dollars in kickback payments from the founder of a local Angolan company that had contracts to supply the Angolan Government with the GE-manufactured turbines.

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DA COSTA, 51, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was convicted by a jury of one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and two counts of aggravated identity theft, each of which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison to run consecutively to any other prison terms imposed.

The statutory minimum and maximum penalties in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by a judge.  DA COSTA is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Castel on February 26, 2025.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of Homeland Security Investigations.

This case is being handled by the Office’s Illicit Finance & Money Laundering Unit.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jennifer N. Ong, Christopher D. Brumwell, and Samuel P. Rothschild are in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Paralegal Specialists Angelica Cotto and Nerlande Pierre.