Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Three men face federal charges in an alleged $3 million fake check scheme.
- They are accused of laundering money using falsified checks and stolen mail.
- The men are accused of opening 40 accounts and sending funds to China and Singapore.
SALT LAKE CITY — Three people have been charged in federal court with using falsified checks and stolen mail to launder $3 million.
Pitshou Yunga Kafuku, 42, Beni Musogo Kahwara, 25, and Hugues Simo-Fotue, 42, are accused of depositing counterfeit, stolen and fraudulent checks then laundering the proceeds.
The three are charged with bank fraud conspiracy, bank fraud, theft of government funds, passing fraudulent U.S. Treasury checks, possessing stolen mail, international money laundering and money laundering exceeding $10,000.
The men defrauded U.S. banks through depositing fraudulent checks, including U.S. Treasury checks, and then quickly transferring deposits to different accounts, including overseas, or withdrawing the funds as cash before the banks could determine the checks were fake, the federal charges allege.
They are accused of sending thousands of dollars to business entities in China and Singapore. By laundering the proceeds, the men disguised "the origin and destination of those funds and the nature of the transactions," the charges state.
The men, along with unnamed coconspirators, opened and controlled at least 40 accounts at nine different financial institutions in the state using false or stolen identities and falsified identification documents, according to investigators. The men allegedly often used aliases to allow multiple coconspirators to deposit checks into the same account.
Kafuku started the scheme first then was joined by Simo-Fotue in May 2023 and Kahwara in June 2023, prosecutors say.
"As alleged, between January 2022 and February 2025, these efforts yielded over $3.1 million in fraud proceeds," the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Utah said.
A portion of the checks that were deposited were stolen from intercepted letters and mail, some of which was sent from the U.S. to business entities and individuals in Africa, the charges state. Kahwara is accused of receiving mail for the fraudulent bank accounts at his residential address.
Kafuku and Kahwara made their initial appearances on April 22, and Simo-Fotue had his on Monday.
