A United States Department of Defence employee, Samuel D. Marcus, has pleaded guilty to helping a Nigeria-based fraud syndicate launder millions of dollars generated from multiple online scams targeting victims across the United States.
Marcus, 33, of Oreland, Pennsylvania, entered the guilty plea on Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Joel H. Slomsky to one count of concealment of money laundering.
According to U.S. court documents, Marcus served as a money mule for the criminal network between July 2023 and December 2025, despite initially falling victim to the same syndicate through a romance scam in late 2022 and early 2023.
Prosecutors said the syndicate, operating from Nigeria under aliases including “Rachel Jude” and “Ned McMurray,” carried out romance, cyber, tax, financing and business email compromise scams that defrauded American victims of millions of dollars.
Investigators disclosed that Marcus, while working as a logistics specialist with the U.S. Department of Defence, knowingly received fraud proceeds into his personal and business accounts before converting the funds into cryptocurrency and transferring them to foreign accounts on the instructions of the fraudsters.
Court filings revealed that Marcus processed millions of dollars in illicit funds despite knowing the money originated from fraudulent activities.
Authorities further alleged that he repeatedly deceived financial institutions and investigators by submitting fake invoices to disguise the illegal transactions as legitimate business payments.
The investigation also found that Marcus continued laundering money even after the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned him that the funds passing through his accounts were proceeds of fraud and that his activities were consistent with money laundering.
His continued involvement, prosecutors said, strengthened the operations of the transnational cybercrime syndicate.
Marcus was first indicted in February on money laundering-related charges.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on October 16 and faces up to 20 years imprisonment, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted under the plea agreement.
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