The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York recently announced that Alex Levin was convicted by a federal jury for playing an integral role in a money laundering scheme in which an international group of thieves stole millions of dollars in cash and property from safe deposit boxes from multiples foreign banks. Levin was convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate the Travel Act for his role in the scheme. He is scheduled to be sentenced on November 4, 2024.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, between March 2015 and October 2019, Levin and his team targeted foreign banks that appeared to lack strong security measures – banks in locations such as Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, and Latvia. Levin’s co-conspirators allegedly posed as bank customers in order to gain access to safe deposit box rooms where they secretly took photographs that enabled them to create duplicate keys for multiple safe deposit boxes and ultimately gain access to customers’ valuables. Levin’s alleged role in the conspiracy was to launder the proceeds of the scheme and obtain the specialized medical equipment used to take photographs at the banks. Federal prosecutors were able to prove that Levin was based in Brooklyn when he laundered the funds and used U.S. bank accounts, including accounts in New York, to purchase the camera equipment used in the thefts.