In Part 1 of this story Classic Baggie: A Delaware BEC Case calls him the leader of an International Criminal Organization the prosecutor in the case of Olugbenga Lawal has given his opening arguments, where he calls Classic Baggie the leader of an international criminal enterprise.
On the first day of the trial, before selecting the jury, an FBI Agent specializing in Transnational Organized Crime is brought in before the judge. This agent was supposed to testify about how West African Organized Crime works. The prosecutor and the judge discussed it before the Agent was summoned, and the judge said she would not allow the Agent to refer to it as "West African Organized Crime" in his testimony, even though the prosecutor assured her that there were unique things about how West African Organized Crime functions, because the judge believed it would tend to create a prejudice against the defendant in the minds of the jury, since the defendant is West African himself. After the jury was brought in and selected and the case began, a different FBI Special Agent, who works on a White Collar Crime Squad is brought in to testify. Here's a small portion of that testimony, which takes the nature of a Question and Answer session, with the questions being asked by the prosecutor, Mr. Wenger:
BY MR. WENGER:
Q. Did the FBI's investigation determine whether that south Florida based group was operating independently or at someone else's direction?
A. Yes, we did.
Q. What did the investigation uncover?
A. We learned that the group was operating at the direction of an individual in Nigeria.
Q. And are you aware of who that individual in Nigeria is?
A. Yes. His name is Ehonre Oluwaseun, which I can spell if you need but he's better known publicly and to law enforcement as Classic Baggie.
Q. Can you briefly describe how the investigation uncovered this group who was operating at the direction of who I am go to refer to as Classic Baggie?
A. During our investigation we seized a number of cell phones from Michael Hermann and executed a warrant from the cell phones and we were able to review text messages between Michael Hermann and Classic Baggie.
Q. Over the course of executing that warrant, did that also further the investigation?
A. Yes, it did.
Q. How did that further the investigation in terms of identifying who this group was operating at the direction of?
A. We -- I identified other members of the network who were also working for Classic Baggie.
Q. Now, over the course of the investigation, did the FBI identified bank accounts controlled by Michael Hermann, Rita Assane and Dwight Baines?
A. Yes.
Now its time to hear from the Government's witness, Michael Hermann, who is also charged in this case. His testimony was on Day Two of the trial and I've cut some portions of it. We'll start with some of his personal background and who the key players in the case are, all from the courtroom transcript of Day Two. I'm including all this extra detail especially for the benefit of my overseas readers, who may be less familiar with how U.S. court process works, I know it is long, but I think you'll be glad to have read the details!
DAY TWO - Direct Examination by Mr. Wenger
MICHAEL HERMANN, having been duly sworn, was examined and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. WENGER:
Q. Good morning, Mr. Hermann.
A. Good morning.
Q. How old are you?
A. I am thirty-five.
Q. Where did you grow up?
A. I grow up in the Ivory Coast, West Africa.
Q. When did you move to the United States?
A. In 2005.
Q. How old were you then?
A. I was eighteen.
Q. When you first moved to the United States, where did you live?
A. I lived in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Q. How long did you live in Oklahoma?
A. About ten years.
Q. Did you go to college?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you graduate from college?
A. Yes.
Q. Where did you go to college?
A. At the University of Central Illinois.
Q. What did you study?
A. Finance.
Q. Are you married?
A. Yes.
Q. How long have you been married?
A. About twelve years.
Q. Where were you living in the 2019, and 2020 time frame?
A. I was living in Miami.
Q. And how long had you been living in Miami at that point?
A. Probably about like two years, year-and-a-half, two years.
Q. Were you living with your wife at that time?
A. No.
Q. Where was your wife living?
A. She was in Texas.
Q. Were you separated from your wife at that time?
A. Yes.
Q. Turning your attention to 2019, what were you doing for a living at that time?
A. In 2019, I was throughout the part of the year, I was doing different things, I was in marketing, I had a
marketing company and I was also an apprentice for a watch business.
Q. What was the name of your marketing company?
A. Top Slope Ventures LLC.
Q. Where you making a lot of money doing those things in the first part of 2019?
A. Not really.
Q. At some point in 2019, did you get involved in the money laundering conspiracy?
A. Yes.
Q. Are you here to testify about your involvement in that money laundering conspiracy?
A. Yes.
Q. Were you a member of that conspiracy?
A. Yes.
Q. Who got you involved in that money laundering conspiracy?
A. Classic Baggie.
Q. Is that a nickname?
A. Yes, it's a nickname.
Q. Do you know Classic Baggie's real name?
A. Ehonre Oluwaseun.
Q. Approximately when did you work -- I'm going to refer to that individual as Classic Baggie, that's how you knew him best?
A. Yes.
Q. Approximately when did you begin working with Classic Baggie to launder money?
A. Around November of 2019.
Q. And where were you living in November of 2019?
A. Miami, Florida.
Q. How long were you actively involved in this money laundering conspiracy?
A. About a year.
Q. Did you work with anybody else in the Miami area as part of this money laundering conspiracy?
A. Yes.
Q. Who did you primarily work with?
A. I worked with Rita Assane, and Dwight Baines.
Q. How did they get involved in this money laundering conspiracy?
A. They were around the vicinity, so I got involved.
Q.Before you got involved with Classic Baggie, had you ever been involved in money laundering before?
A. No.
Q. How did you know what to do?
A. Classic Baggie taught me everything I needed to know.
Q. Mr. Hermann, when you talk about he taught you everything you needed to know, who were you referring to as he?
A. Classic Baggie.
Q. How did you communicate with Classic Baggie?
A. Primarily WhatsApp messages, phone call and video calls.
Q. And as you really got started with the money laundering, how frequently were you communicating with
Classic Baggie?
A. Every day, every other day.
Q. Can you please turn to what is the smaller binder in front of you with your name on the front. And flip to the document marked Government Exhibit 132(c). What is that document?
A. This is a picture of Classic Baggie.
Q. Do you recognize that individual as Classic Baggie?
A. Yes.
MR. WENGER: The government moves to admit and briefly publish Government Exhibit 132(c).
MR. SPARACO: No objection.
THE COURT: Thank you. Its admitted.
Q. That individual up there on the screen is who you would have video calls with?
A. Yes.
Q. And who you would be in communication with?
A. Yes.
Q. And who taught you how to do money laundering?
A. Yes.
Q.Where did you understand Classic Baggie to live?
A. Nigeria.
Q. Is that based on your conversation with him?
A. Yes.
Q. And your video calls with him?
A. Yes.
Q. What did you understand Classic Baggie to do in Nigeria?
A. He told me that he had a few businesses, including the construction company. And a money business where he
exchanged money from across the countries and stuff, also in the car import and export car business.
Q. Through the course of your communications with Classic Baggie, does the name Olugbenga Lawal come up?
A. Yes.
Q. How did that first come up?
A. It came up when he first asked me to do small favors to him at the beginning, he had me send money to Olugbenga.
Q. And did that name Olugbenga Lawal repeatedly come up over the course of your money laundering relationship with Classic Baggie?
A. Yes, a lot.
Q. When that name would have come up, how would it come up?
A. It would come up, he would tell me to send $50,000 to Lawal with an address or something like that, send CashApp
to Lawal and send me the details and things like that, yeah.
Q. Have you ever met Olugbenga Lawal?
A. No.
Q. Have you ever spoken to him?
A. No.
Q. Would you know what Olugbenga Lawal looks like?
A. No.
Q. Did you also communicate with Rita Assane and Dwight Baines about your money laundering activities?
A. Yes.
Q. And how would you communicate with them about the money laundering activities you were doing together?
A. Via text message and phone calls.
Q. Would you use any apps?
A. WhatsApp messages, yes.
Q. Is that also how you were communicating with Classic Baggie?
A. Yes.
Q. Ms. Busch, can we pull up what's been previously admitted as Government Exhibit 205? Zoom in on that chart.
Mr. Hermann, is that a chart that we've gone over before?
A. Yes.
Q. And you've looked at all those government exhibits that are referenced in the right-hand column?
A. Yes.
Q. And do you understand that these are all messages that on-these exhibits were all messages obtained from
phones of yours?
A. Yes.
Q. And are those names in the left-hand column contacts that were saved in either your phone or your WhatsApp app?
A. Yes.
Q. I want to first start with the top line of these rows. Who is Mike RM Plug?
A. That's me.
Q. Is that a user name, or a name you had used on your phone or your WhatsApp?
A. Yeah.
Q. How about Mike Miami?
A. That's me, also.
Q. And Michael Hermann?
A. That's me.
Q. Now I want to look at the bottom names on each of those rows. Who do you have saved in your phone as Manu New S?
A. Rita Assane.
Q. Who do you have save in your phone as Manu Newcell?
A. Also Rita Assane.
Q. Who do you have saved in your phone as Baggie?
A. Classic Baggie.
Q. Who do you have saved in your phone as D Heavy?
A. Dwight Baines.
Q. Who do you have saved in your phone as Heavy 2x?
A. Dwight Baines, also.
Q. And all those messages referenced in those government exhibits we have gone over before, were all those
conversations centered on your money laundering activities with those various individuals?
A. Yes.
Q. We're going to get into more details about your involvement in money laundering in a moment. First, I want
to skip ahead to the winter and spring of 2022. Were you charged in Federal Court for your involvement in this money
laundering conspiracy?
A. Yes.
Q. Were you arrested on those charges?
A. Yes.
Q. About when were you arrested?
A. About March of 2022.
Q. And do you remember where you were arrested?
A. I turned myself in here.
Q. Here in this court house?
A. Well, in Delaware, but I think it was in a different court house, if it was here, I don't remember.
Q. You remember turning yourself in to a Federal Court house somewhere in Delaware?
A. Right. Yes.
Q. Did you get to go home after you turned yourself in?
A. No, bail was set, and I was put on house arrest.
Q. When you said you were not able to go home, does that mean you were not able to go home to Miami?
A. That's correct, yes.
Q. Were you kept in custody or any significant amount of time after you turned our yourself in?
A. Yeah, one day and then I was sent to Texas.
Q. Who was living in Texas?
A. My wife and my kids.
Q. Did you have any restrictions placed on you at that time?
A. Yes, I was on house arrest.
Q. Have you been living in Texas under similar restrictions ever since that time?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you ultimately decide to cooperate with the government's investigation in this case?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you later agree to plead guilty to your federal charge?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you turn to paragraph 15 of this agreement. Just briefly read it and look up when you've read that paragraph.
A. (Witness reviewing document. ) Yes.
Q. What do you understand that paragraph to mean?
A. It means that I would be responsible along with the co-conspirators to repay restitution for the sum of
3,761,066 back to the victims.
Q. So restitution was $3,761,066?
A. Yes.
Q. What's your understanding of what restitution is?
A. It is paying it back.
Q. Paying it back to who?
A. To the victims.
Q. That's the amount you've agreed to work to pay back?
A. Right.
Mr. Hermann starts recruiting more money launderers for Classic Baggie
Q. I want to turn back to the money laundering operation, and I want to begin by asking you about your
relationship to some of the individuals that we already talked about. How long have you known Rita Asane?
A. Over a decade.
Q. How did you meet her?
A. I met her through a friend of her sister at the time.
Q. And what was the nature of your relationship with Ms. Asane in 2019?
A. We were romantically involved at that time.
Q. How long have you been romantically involved?
A. Probably about a year-and-a-half at that point.
Q. Why did you turn to Ms. Asane to join the money laundering operation?
A. She was close, and pretty much saw everything, just
being that close, when I was talking to Classic Baggie and every time like that, so she wanted to join, she saw the
opportunity also and I was like yeah, it works out, like I talked to him, he was okay with it, and she joined.
Q. Did she hesitate at all?
A. No, she was excited.
Q. Was she financially struggling at the time?
A. Yeah, we all were.
Q. Did you say you were all financially struggling at the time?
A. Yes.
Q. Turning to Dwight Baines, how did you meet Dwight Baines?
A. I met him at the beginning of 2019.
Q. How did you meet Dwight Baines?
A. I was selling some clothing online, on an app called Offer Up, and he contacted me through Offer Up and we
started talking, I told him about the jeans, clothing, we started being friends and we were cool from there.
Q. Why did you turn to Mr. Baines to join the money laundering conspiracy?
A. He was already in that world, you know, so it was easy for me to have a conversation with him as well.
Q. When you say he was already in that world, can you briefly explain what you mean by that world?
A. He was already doing like small scams, like getting apartments and small things like that.
Q. Do you know if Mr. Baines had any association with the name Kyle Miller?
A. Yeah, that was his alias.
A Strange Way to Buy A Watch: How Mr. Hermann met Classic Baggie
Q. I want to focus on your relationship with Classic Baggie. About when did you first have contact with Classic
Baggie?
A. I first had contact with him when I sold a watch to one of the biggest artist in Nigeria, his name is Davido, so when I sold him the watch, he got it and had a concert in Dubai, he was so excited about it, he posted on his story, I think at the time he had 20 million followers, and when he posted it, he posted I was one of the best watch dealers, and on his story he tied me in there and blew up my Instagram page, he has a big Nigerian following, and a bunch of those people followed me and out of those when Classic Baggie started following me.
Q. Was this had in the summer of 2019?
A. That happened around August of 2019.
Q. So around August of 2019, that summer, to early fall,
did you continue to talk to Classic Baggie?
A. Yes.
Q. And at that time, what was the focus of the
relationship between you and Classic Baggie?
A. At that time it was me being apprentice watch dealer
talking to a client, he wanted to buy a watch, so we was
basically talking about the whole watch thing, just send me
a picture of this watch, how much is this, responding back,
things like that, so it was just business.
Q. Are we talking about $10 watches, $10,000 watches,
$100,000 watches?
A. No, we talking about $275,000 watches, 300,000, type
of watches.
Q. You said you were working as an apprentice at that
time. Can you just briefly describe the business
relationship with the people that you were apprenticing for?
A. Sure. So I have been working under them for --
they're watch dealers, right, so I wanted to learn the
business, so I was working with them going to the store and
things like that, like learning the business for over a year
just working for free and just trying to learn, going to
watch events, conferences to get familiar with the business
and try to get sales. So my job was to take pictures of
watches, post them on social media, promote it, go out and
try to network and try to get clients for them so I could
make a sale and make a commission from the sale.
Q. Did you wind up selling any watches to Classic
Baggie?
A. Yes.
Q. What watch did you sell?
A. I sold him a Richard Mille RN11-03 McLaren.
Q. How much money did you sell him that watch for?
A. $275,000.
Q. When did that happen?
A. That happened in November 2019.
Q. So when you were apprenticing, how much money did you
make when you sold a $275,000 watch?
A. I didn't make that much on this watch in particular.
They just give me like $2,000.
Q. And when you were talking to Classic Baggie about
this watch purchase, how were you communicating with him?
A. At first he contacted me through Instagram, and then
we moved to WhatsApp, send me his number through WhatsApp,
it was easier to communicate.
Q. Did Classic Baggie write you a personal check for
$275,000 to buy that watch?
A. No.
Q. Did he wire you $275,000 from a personal Nigerian
bank account to buy that watch?
A. No.
Q. How did Classic Baggie pay for that $275,000 watch?
A. He had someone make cashier checks in small
increments to pay for the watch.
Q. And where was that person located?
A. In Georgia.
Q. In the United States?
A. Yes.
Q. So Classic Baggie wasn't depositing those cashier's
checks?
A. No.
Q. Where were those cashiers's check getting deposited?
A. To the business bank account of my boss, my partners
for the watch business.
Q. Is that how you were expecting to get paid?
A. No.
Q. Is that an unusual way to get paid for luxury
watches?
A. Yes, there is usually require a wire, direct wire so
we can make sure we track and know everything, but he paid
through cashier checks, different cashier checks for
different companies.
Q. Did that raise any red flags for you or the people
you were working for?
A. Yes, at the time, yes.
Q. Can you describe why that raised red flags for you
and the people you were working for?
A. It was, as I said, unusual and we sent them the wire
information and he replied with a receipt of a payment, but
it looks like it was a deposit. So it was weird, and they
had to look into it more, just get more information about
this guy, the way he was paying.
Q. Can you turn to that slightly larger binder that's in
front of you that has Government Exhibits 300 to 405. Can
you take a moment to look at what's marked as Government
Exhibits 402(a) through 402(d-1).
A. Yes.
Q. Do you recognize those documents?
A. Yes.
Q. Are these some of those phone messages we were
talking about earlier?
A. Yes.
Q. Who are these phone messages between?
A. Those are messages between Classic Baggie and I.
Q. And over these couple of exhibits, what are you
talking about with Classic Baggie?
A. In this I am discussing with Classic Baggie, in here
he asked me, he wanted to buy three watches, I confirmed how
many watches. And we basically exchanging what he's asking
me to send my information to receive the payments for these
watches. So I sent him the wire information for the watch
business.
Q. I want to talk to you about a few of those government
exhibits. If you could focus your attention first just on
402(a) and 402(b). Ms. Busch, can you please pull up
Government Exhibit 402(a). And zoom in on that middle
message on page 4 of this exhibit. And just the first time
we're looking at one of these up close, I want to talk about
a few different parts of this message. Mr. Hermann, up on
the top left-hand corner where it says from, what name does
it say?
A. Baggy.
Q. Who is baggy to you?
A. That is Classic Baggie.
Q. What's the date of this message on the bottom
right-hand corner?
A. November 20th of 2019.
Q. And what is Classic Baggie sending you in this
message?
A. He's sending me a picture of a receipt from a deposit
from -- to pay for the watch that he purchased.
Q. Ms. Busch, can we please pull up Government Exhibit
402(b), which is a larger version of that attachment.
Mr. Hermann, can you explain again what this
receipt meant to you?
A. This receipt was deposited, that would go towards the
purchase of the $275,000 watch that he sent, that was his
confirmation that he sent a deposit towards that watch so he
sent it to me.
Q. Again when you say he sent the deposit, did he make
this deposit?
A. No, he had somebody else make a deposit.
Q. This message was dated November 20th, what's the date
of that receipt?
A. November 20th.
Q. Thank you, Ms. Busch.
Ms. Busch, if you could please pull up
Government Exhibit 402(c) to focus on that top message. Who
is this message from, Mr. Hermann?
A. Baggie.
Q. What's the date of this message?
A. November 21, 2019.
Q. And what is Baggie sending you in this message?
A. He's sending me another payment that will go towards
the purchase of the $275,000 watch.
Q. Ms. Busch, could we pull up 402(c-1), which again is
a larger version of that image.
How much was this deposit for?
A. $82,700.
Q. Again, what accounts are these deposits being made
into?
A. They are depositing the money into the Chase account
for my business partners in the watch business.
Q. What's the date of this receipt?
A. November 21st, 2019.
Q. Did you have a conversation with Classic Baggie about
who was depositing these checks?
A. Yes.
Q. If you could turn your attention to Government
Exhibit 402(d). Just briefly read through the messages
contained in 402(d).
What are you talking about with Classic Baggie
in those messages?
A. In these messages, I asked him the send me more
information about whoever is sending the money, because
we're concerned about the way that the money was being
deposited into the account, and I urged him to send more
detail about the person sending the money or the company,
and just send more information, ID and things like that,
just to verify.
Q. Ms. Busch, can you please pull up Government Exhibit
402(d), and focus on the last message of page 2.
Can you explain what's going on in this message,
Mr. Hermann?
A. This is a forwarded message that Classic Baggie sent
me, and this is the information of the person that sent the
payments to the business account for the watch.
Q. You say send the payments, do you mean the person
that was depositing those cashier checks?
A. Right.
Q. And sending those receipts?
A. Correct.
Q. We're going to see this word forwarded, in the top
left-hand corner on quite a few messages. Can you explain
based on your use of WhatsApp what that means?
A. It means a message that has been forwarded from
another person that was sent to me.
Q. Based on your understanding, would Classic Baggie
have typed out the information on that message or would you
have forwarded that information from somebody else?
A. Right, he had forwarded that information from
somebody else.
Q. Can you just read the business name and individual
name that appears on this message?
A. Sure. It is the Mullings Group LLC, and Malachi
Mullings.
Q. Thank you, Ms. Busch. If we could leave out
Government Exhibit 402(d), and turn to the top of page 3.
Can you zoom in on that top message. What does that message
mean to you, Mr. Hermann?
A. This message is a forwarded message from Classic
Baggie with the ID of the individual that sent the payments,
the deposit to this account.
Q. Why were you getting this ID?
A. I was getting it to verify the information that I
previously was asking for to make sure that whoever is
sending the money you know, is actually the person.
Q. Can we please pull up Government Exhibit 402(d-1)
which again is a larger version of that attachment. What's
the name on that driver's license?
A. Malachi Anthony Mullings.
Q. Is that an individual that you ever met in person?
A. Yes.
Q. And what resulted in you meeting Malachi Mullings in
person?
A. I had to meet him because Classic Baggie arranged a
meeting between us for him to drop me off some money.
Q. And over the course of your relationship with Classic
Baggie, did you develop an understanding of what Classic
Baggie's relationship was to this Malachi Mullings person?
A. Yeah, they were working together.
Q. Thank you, Ms. Busch.
Now, at some point did Classic Baggie start to
ask you for favors that had nothing to do with $275,000
watches?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you tell me how that started to happen?
A. That started in -- at the end of -- towards the end
of 20 -- November of 2019. He asked me to pick up $25,000
from someone in Fort Lauderdale in Florida, and it was
supposed to go towards the purchase of the watch, because he
was making payments, and I told him that we couldn't take
cash because of the way my partners accept money, it has to
be straight wired, the way you have been paying is already
complicated, so I can't add cash to it, it's going to be too
much, he did insist that I go pick up the money, because he
said it would be safe with me, than the person he had the
money with, so I went and picked up $25,000.
Q. Is that a normal thing you do with people, go and
pick up tens of thousands of dollars in cash and hold on to
it for them?
A. No.
Q. Why were you doing this for Classic Baggie at that
time?
A. At that time, I just wanted to be on his good side,
have some small favors, hopefully because he looked like he
had a lot of money, I just wanted to be cool with him and be
on his good side, just do favors, help him out, it didn't
seem like anything crazy, hold on to the money, I'll tell
you what to do, I was like okay, cool.
Q. What did he wind up asking you to do with that
$25,000 or so in cash?
A. He started asking me to send cashier -- deposit money
orders, make money orders with it, like he told me to go to
like Publix, for example, just go do money orders, $5,000
and send it to this person, do another 5,000, 2,000, send it
to this person, things like that.
Q. What is Publix?
A. Sorry, it's a store, it's like a Wal-Mart or
something like that in Florida, very popular.
Q. I just want to break this down a little bit. He
would ask you to go to Publix, and how would you get a money
order?
A. You go to the cashiers, customer service people and
you just ask them, you want money orders and you give them
cash and they give you money orders and then you have it,
and you can send it to whoever.
Q. And Classic Baggie gave you names of people to send
those money orders to?
A. Yes.
Q. And would you mail them at times?
A. Yes.
Q. Did he also ask you to send any mobile payments from
that $25,000?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you turn to what is marked as Government
Exhibit 402(g), 402(g-1) and 402(g-2). Mr. Hermann, if you
could turn in your binder and take a look at what's marked
as Government Exhibit 402(g), 402(g-1)and 402(g-2).
A. Yes.
Q. Do you recognize those documents?
A. Yes.
Q. And at a high level, what are you talking about with
Classic Baggie in these documents?
A. In these documents, Classic Baggie sent me
instructions to send payments to Lawal R.
Q. Ms. Busch, could you see what it looks like if we
pull up 402(g), just the last two messages on that page.
Is that the instruction that Classic Baggie is
sending to you?
A. Yes. He sent me a screen shot of this and with a
name of like a CashApp tag, I had to send money to.
Q. Could you scroll down to that next message Ms. Busch,
what does that say Mr. Hermann?
A. He say kindly pay my balance in here.
Q. What balance is Classic Baggie referring to?
A. He's referring to the money that he has with me.
Q. Ms. Busch, could we pull up Government Exhibit
402(g-1), which is a larger version of that attachment that
Classic Baggie was sent to Michael Hermann.
What's the name on that CashApp account?
A. Lawal R.
Q. At that time, did you have any idea who or what Lawal
R was?
A. No.
Q. And can you please turn to the next -- Government
Exhibit 402(G-2), Ms. Busch. Mr. Hermann, what is this
message, what is this image?
A. This is a screen shot that I sent back to Classic
Baggie to let him know that I in fact went ahead and made
the payments that he asked me to make for the sum of $3,500.
Mr. Hermann starts laundering money for Classic Baggie
Q. Thank you, Ms. Busch.
Now, at this time, do you fully appreciate that
you are working with someone to launder money?
A. At this time I am --
Q. At the end of November, very early December?
A. At that time, I am not in the mind frame that I'm
actually laundering money at that time.
Q. Did you think something weird was going on with all
these favors that Classic Baggie was asking you to do?
A. Yes, yes, for sure.
Q. Did you think maybe there was something a little off
about these favors?
A. Yes.
Q. Had you ever been in the business of just sending
money to different people at someone's direction before?
A. No.
Q. So can you explain how you went from doing these
favors to knowingly joining a money laundering conspiracy?
A. Sure. So while this was going on, you know, after
this he gave me like a thousand dollars, 1,500, something
like that, that I remember, and so after that he basically
-- because the first time he -- because he wanted to buy
three watches originally, so he bought one from my guys and
when I told him how much I made on those, it was like
$2,000, he's like that is no money, spending $275,000,
you're only getting $2,000, you should make more money, do
you have a business account so I could buy through you
directly, I said I do, but it's not an actual watch
business, I have to pay to a watch business, I have a
marketing company, he said that's fine, as long as you have
a business account, I can pay through you, you don't have to
share your money with these guys, we can figure it out
together, we can make money, I was like okay, I can
definitely do that, that works, so I sent him my information
and supposedly doing a watch business together.
Q. Can you turn to Government Exhibit 402(h), Ms. Busch,
can we pull up Government Exhibit 402(h), and zoom in on the
top message of page 1. Mr. Hermann, what's the date on this
message?
A. This is December 12, 2019.
Q. And looking at this Government Exhibit in its
entirety, not just on that message that -the portion of the
message that we zoomed in on, what are you talking about
with Classic Baggie here?
A. In this message, Classic Baggie -- well he asked me
-- he sent me reference on how I should send my information
to him, like my business information to him because I think
I sent it before and it was so disorganized, so he was like
this is how you should send it to me.
Q. Is this in reference to the watch purchase you were
hoping to make?
A. Yes.
Q. Did he explain why you had to send your user name and
password?
A. He indicated he didn't trust -- it's my first time
working with him, he wanted to make sure I wouldn't play
him, I wouldn't try to do anything funny, so he asked me to
send everything plus my user name and password so he could
verify.
Q. Ms. Busch, could you pull up page 2 of this document,
the top message.
Is that the message that you sent in response?
A. Yes.
Q. And what are you sending him in this message, and him
being Classic Baggie?
A. Yeah. I'm sending Classic Baggie all my marketing
information, my business information for my marketing
company, all of the details that he asked me, and how he
asked me to send it.
Q. Based on this exchange, did you ultimately receive a
large deposit into one of your bank accounts?
A. Yes.
Q. Into this bank account that's referenced in this
message?
A. Yes.
Q. What bank is that?
A. Navy Federal Credit Union.
Q. Had you opened an account in the name of Top Slope
Ventures LLC?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you remember how much money that deposit was for?
A. Yes, $261,000.
Q. Did that deposit come straight from Classic Baggie?
A. No.
Q. Again, did somebody else wire that money to you?
A. Yes.
Q. Did he tell you who that person was?
A. Yeah, he sent me the information of that person.
Q. Ms. Busch, can you please pull up Government Exhibit
402(i). And zoom in on the top of page 2. What name does
it say there, Mr. Hermann?
A. Sally McCune.
Q. From what city and state?
A. Sandusky, Ohio.
Q. Why did you understand Classic Baggie to be sending
you that name and that information?
A. He sent it to me in reference to the wire that was
sent just to make sure I know where that wire came from, who
sent the wire, the name, I guess, of the person.
Q. If you could turn Ms. Busch, and zoom in on the top
message of page 3.
Mr. Hermann, can you explain what's happening in
this message?
A. In this message, I sent them a screen shot of the
money appearing in my account, because he had contacted me
and asked me to make sure the money was in my account. And
when I saw it, I said yes it was, he said send me a screen
shot of it to verify, so I sent it, that's the picture I
sent him.
Q. Ms. Busch, could you pull up 402(i-1), which is a
larger version of that attachment. What's the available
balance that you're sending to Classic Baggie in that
attachment?
A. Yes.
Q. What is the available balance?
A. It was $261,209.70.
Q. Can you explain where you took this picture from?
A. I took the picture and I sent it to him.
Q. Is that your online log-in for Navy Federal Credit
Union?
A. Yes. Yes.
Q. If you could briefly take out that other small binder
in front of you Mr. Hermann, and take a look at what's been
marked as Government Exhibit 100.
A. Yes.
Q. Do you recognize that document?
A. Yes.
Q. What is it?
A. This is a bank statement from Navy Federal Bank
account.
Q. And what is the name on that bank account?
A. Top Slope Ventures, LLC.
Q. Is that your bank account?
A. Yes.
Q. The bank account you opened?
A. Right.
MR. WENGER: The government moves to admit and
publish Government Exhibit 100.
MR. SPARACO: No objection.
THE COURT: Thank you. It's admitted.
(Government Exhibit no. 100 was admitted into
evidence.
BY MR. WENGER:
Q. Ms. Busch, if you could zoom in on the top of page 1.
What's the statement period for this document, Mr. Hermann?
A. December 1st, 2019, to December 31, 2019.
Q. Ms. Busch, if we could turn to page 2. Strike that.
Page 3. And zoom in on the first December 13th entry. What
happened to your bank account on December 13th, Mr. Hermann?
A. On December 13th, I received a wire for $261,000.
Q. And what was the balance in your account before you
received that wire?
A. $262.14.
Q. Did Classic Baggie buy a watch with that $261,000?
A. No.
Q. What did he have you do with all that money?
A. He had me send to car business to make payment for
car and various things.
Q. I want to turn your attention back to this
December 13th, mid December time frame. Before that money
hit your account, what did you think it was going to be for?
A. For a watch.
Q. How quickly did you learn that it was not actually
for a watch?
A. The next day.
Q. At that point, did you start to have anymore red
flags raised in your mind?
A. Yeah, for sure.
Q. Was that the first time you had received a very, very
large amount of money directed to you from Classic Baggie?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you think this was all above board at that point?
A. Did I think it was what?
Q. Above board, legit?
A. No, I definitely felt weird about it, but I was also
excited because I never seen that much money before, it was
nerve racking, but also excited at the same time.
Q. Turning back to what he actually had you do with that
money, you said he had you write a cashiers check to a car
company?
A. Yeah.
Q. Do you remember how much that cashiers check was for?
A. $122,000.
Q. Could we please pull up what's marked as Government
Exhibit 402(k-2), and zoom in on the bottom message. Is
this a message between you and Classic Baggie?
A. Yes.
Q. What are you sending him in this message?
A. This message I am sending him a picture of the
cashier check that he had me make, and just sending it to
him so that he knows that I actually did it.
Q. What is the date on this message?
A. It is December 17, 2020, -- I mean 2019, I'm sorry.
Q. Ms. Busch, could you pull up Government Exhibit
402(k-3), which is a larger version of that attachment. Is
that the cashier check you obtained at Classic Baggie
direction?
A. Yes.
Q. How much money is that cashier check for?
A. $122,312.
Q. Who is made payable to?
A. Bespoke Motor Group.
Q. Would that name come up time and time again over the
course of your relationship with Classic Baggie?
A. Yes.
Q. What do you understand was going to happen with that
$122,000 check?
A. He was going to buy a car with it.
Q. Ms. Busch, could you please pull up Government
Exhibit 402(o). Zoom in on that top message. This message
between you and Classic Baggie?
A. Correct, yes.
Q. What's the date on this message?
A. December 28, 2019.
Q. And we'll fill in some of these gaps, by this time
are you fully invested in the money laundering conspiracy?
A. Yes.
Q. You know what's going on?
A. Yes.
Q. There are no tricks going on?
A. Right.
Q. So can you walk us through what this message means
and why you were sending it to Classic Baggie, and just
start with that top line, deposit, what payment means, what
commission means, what balance means?
A. Okay. So he sent $261,000. This is basically an
accounting of everything that was done with the money that
he sent. The commission was ten percent of the whole thing,
and 90 percent to be sent back to him in various ways. So
payment one, payment two, all those payments, everything,
the instruction that he sent, whether it's a cashier check
or like wire or whatever it is, this is basically outlining
everything and so he knows exactly what was done with the
money, what was left and everything like that, like the
money order, there is a fee $75,000, it was $10,000, so
basically everything that was done, had to be documented so
he knows exactly what was done with the money so you know,
there is no confusion, it tells you his balance so he knows
what he has left and what he wants to do with it.
Q. Is this generally over the course of the relationship
with Classic Baggie how you would document and account for
all the money coming in and going out?
A. Yes. Yes. He required that.
Q. And every payment listed, was there a specific
instruction that came to you from Classic Baggie about how
much money to get and who to send it to?
A. Yes.
Q. You talked about your admission of ten percent on
that $261,000 wire. So how much money was that?
A. $26,000. 26,100.
Q. Is that the most money you had ever made in your life
at that point?
A. Yes.
Q. At least at one time?
A. Yeah.
Q. Was it the easiest way to make money?
A. Yes.
Q. How did that feel?
A. I had $200, so to have $26,000 at once, it's life
changing for me, yeah, I felt like I was rich.
Q. And did you talk to Rita Assane and Dwight Baines
about this?
A. Yeah. Yeah.
Q. Did you guys get excited about the prospect of what
could happen here?
A. Yeah, for sure. We went out to eat, you know,
celebrated, all that stuff.
Q. Did you begin to realize exactly what was going on?
A. Yeah.
Q. After getting that $261,000 wire, did you continue to
work with Classic Baggie to receive money at his direction?
A. Yes.
Q. And to move it at his direction?
A. Yes.
Q. To who he asked you to move it to?
A. Correct.
Q. Did you continue to receive anymore large deposits
directly into your own bank account?
A. No.
Q. So is this when Rita Assane and Dwight Baines got
more actively involved?
A. Yes.
Q. In the days following that $261,000 deposit?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you explain why you got them involved at that
time?
A. It was first Classic Baggie wanted more accounts,
more business accounts to be opened, more business accounts
so he could send money to. And I just couldn't do it, it
was too much for me and it was easier also for me to
delegate it, I also was excited to work, because I saw the
money, just put me on, I want to work, I'm ready, I will do
it, so it's easy for them to join and just get started. And
so that's kind of how he got -- that's how he really got
started really.
Q. Were there any added benefit to you to having them
get involved and open up bank accounts?
A. Yeah, yeah, because first I didn't have to do it
myself because it's definitely nerve racking believe it or
not, to go to the bank and have to do a cashier check and
just not know what is going to happen, I didn't have to go
to the bank anymore and I could still share the profit, the
ten percent between all of us, it was definitely a benefit
to me, I was helping them out so they were also making
money, so that was also a benefit.
Q. Was your name on all those accounts?
A. No, their name was on them.
Q. Was that also a benefit to you?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you explain at a high level what Rita Assane's
role in this organization came to be?
A. Sure. She was in charge of opening up LLC's. Of
course the more LLC's you have, the more business bank
accounts you can open, and the more money you can receive.
So that's what she was doing, and also she had to receive
money and send money to whoever she was supposed to send
money to according to -- from the instructions that were
sent to us.
Q. The instructions sent to you by Classic Baggie?
A. Yes.
Q. Did Dwight Baines have a similar role?
A. Yes.
Q. Who were the primary LLC for businesses that Rita
Assane used for this organization?
A. KLAM Properties LLC and KLAM Entertainment LLC.
Q. What were the primary business or businesses that
Dwight Baines used as part of this operation?
A. Baines Properties LLC.
Q. Once you had Rita Assane and Dwight Baines involved,
what did your role become?
A. I was more of almost like a liaison, I would get
information from Classic Baggie, like the instructions and I
would just forward it to either Baines or Rita.
Q. Now, were you left to your own devise to figure out
how to do this or did Classic Baggie give you specific
instructions on what to do?
A. He gave me very specific instructions on what to do.
Q. Can you explain some of the instructions that Classic
Baggie gave to you?
A. He would tell me, for example, like to open up
business bank account instead of personal bank account, what
bank to open the account with.
Q. I want to briefly pause right there, why did he tell
you to open up business bank accounts instead of personal
bank accounts?
A. Yeah, he did say that business bank accounts is a lot
easier to move money. I guess, you know, if you receive a
large sum of money in or take it out, take it out of your
account, from a business perspective, it was easier and the
bank would not request anything. Whereas, if it's a
personal bank account, when you receive a big amount of
money, or you go to take it out, it gets questioned because
this is personal, personal people don't move money like
that, businesses are more lenient, the money in basis to do.
Q. Did he also advise to you at what particular banks to
open accounts?
A. Yes.
Q. What did he tell you about that?
A. He said that bigger banks are easier for some
transaction, and then some small banks are also good for
some type of transactions.
Mr. Hermann confronts Classic Baggie about his source of funds (and learns about Romance Scams)
Q. At some point while accounts are getting opened and
you, Rita Assane and Dwight Baines are getting off the
ground, do you have a conversation with Classic Baggie about
exactly where all this money was coming from that you were
directing your way?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you tell me about that conversation?
A. Yeah. It came about when one of the accounts was on
hold, frozen for like -- for a certain reason and we didn't
understand why. And the bank started asking questions which
at first everything was fine and then it just became more
rowdy, you have to close it, you have to send some
information, there are some fraud things going on so we
became concerned --
Q. I want to briefly pause you, just to orient the jury
to when this conversation was taking place, was this kind of
also in mid December when this was all getting started?
A. Yes, yes, yes, so it was around December, and so when
that happened, first it wasn't my account at the time, it
was Rita's account, so she was concerned, and she was like
need to try to figure out what's going on here because he
told us everything is supposed to be fine, and now they're
calling her and things like that. She started to be a
little bit scared, so I had to have a serious conversation
with him because he made us feel like everything is good,
this is his own account or -- at first he said something
about it was -- it's business partners like the Saudi and
the one that sent money, he had businesses in the U.S., we
were comfortable, even though it was a little funny. But
when the accounts started being on hold and frozen, the bank
is calling, then it's like is it really your stuff, you got
to tell me what's going on here, this is not my personal
account, I'm involved with other people, I want to know
what's going on, otherwise it's not going to fly, so you
have to tell me what's going on.
Q. Let's get to that in a second. But within a week or
so of getting your first large deposit into your bank
account and working with Classic Baggie, all these issues
with the bank started coming up?
A. Yes.
Q. And red flags were being raised by the bank?
A. Yes.
Q. Within a week?
A. Yeah.
Q. So tell me more about this conversation with Classic
Baggie where you confronted him about where this money was
really coming from?
A. So when I asked him, he basically explained to me
that he had everything under control because the people that
are sending the money are actual people who send the money
to people -- okay, the people that send the money will not
recall the money because they have them under control. So
and so when I ask him to elaborate more, he told me that it
was his people that are in the love relationship with him.
Q. What do you mean by -- can you explain about his
people being in the love relationship with them?
A. So he told me there was a love thing, so a love scam,
right. And so the people that he works with have these
people under control. That basically are the partners or
the lovers, and instruct them to send the money to us so we
can send the money back to them. The reason why the bank
account wouldn't freeze or anything could happen is because
the person that is in love is actually going to the bank and
sending the money to us, so there is no reason for them to
recall it or for anything to happen. It wasn't stolen
money, somebody goes into an account and hack it and send it
to you where you can get in trouble, so they will fix it, it
will only be a problem, you have to focus on working because
it will get taken care of.
But the explanation that he give me in detail
was more like his people that he's working with basically
have the people that send us the money like in control, like
they control them, they'll work with them, they're in love
with them, and so they basically send us the money and
everything will be fine.
Q. And did Classic Baggie describe these people who are
in love, about what type of people they were?
A. Yeah. They were older people that had money. And
they think they in love with this person that is behind a
computer, and they asking them for favors, and the favors
turned into money, and that's when they start sending money
to help them out.
Q. Did you have a conversation with Classic Baggie about
whether those favors were based in the truth or based in
lies?
A. Yeah. I mean, it was tricky, you know, he did
explain that those are the things they do online, they
basically find older people that have money and get them out
of their money, trick them out of their money and have them
send us the money and take our percentage I guess and send
the rest to them.
Q. Were you doing anything for these people sending you,
Rita Assane and Dwight Baines money?
A. No.
Q. Now, you talked about being comforted because Classic
Baggie said the money wouldn't get recalled or anything,
this wasn't stolen money. Could you talk in a little bit
more detail first by what you mean by the money won't get
recalled and why that comforted you?
A. Yeah, he did -- well the reason why it comforted me
and us altogether, is because the first part is never going
to come back where like the person -- he explained that it
wasn't stolen, so that is good enough first of all, because
the person actually goes to the bank, if it's Sally or
whoever, they sit there and actually sent us the money. So
that was, okay, at least it's not stolen, they're not going
to come after us or whatever, but the second thing it was
that if anything happened, he could fix it, that was another
way to -- you know, that we felt also comfortable.
Q. And when you say the money wasn't stolen, do you mean
that the money was not taken without the sender's knowledge?
A. Right, right. Right.
Mr. Hermann Explains How Classic Baggie's Operation Worked
BY MR. WENGER:Q. Over the course of your working relationship with Classic Baggie, did you gain an understanding of how his
operation worked?
A. Yes.
Q. Was that based on conversations with Classic Baggie?
A. Yes.
Q. And doing things at his direction?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you explain at a high level how you understood
his operation to work?
A. Yes, sure. For the sake of I guess, administration,
I will call the people doing scam, the actual, what I call
victim, and fraudsters, just to -- so everybody follow and
understand the way I understand. So Step 1, is that the
fraudsters create an online profile, like a dating profile.
With the dating profile targeting a certain number of
people, older people with money, they get to talk to them,
get them to fall in love with them and get to ask for
certain favors and those favors are you know, money, small
gift and things like that. And so after the clients -- I
mean not clients, the victims agree to --
Q. Stop right there, you just used the terms clients.
Is that a term that you had used with Classic Baggie?
A. Yeah.
Q. Is that how he would refer to what you have described
as the victims?
A. Yeah. You refer to them as clients.
Q. That was the terminology you would use, clients?
A. Right. Right. I would say that's my partner's
clients, things like that. But I wanted everybody to follow
so I said victim and fraudsters. And so they would create
the profile, get them to fall in love with them. And after
they fall in love with them, then they can ask them for
favors including money and they would tell them they have
like certain issues or whatever, they need money for
investment like whatever it is, they want to invest in a
business or an estate, things like that, and the client then
sends money. That's Step 1. The Step 2 is when the client
is getting ready to send the money --
Q. Quick pause. Step 1, was it ever explained to you
how long it might take for Step 1 to be completed, how long
it took to convince someone to send money for an online
relationship?
A. That I'm not a hundred percent sure, I couldn't say
something I don't know, but I'm assuming it might take a few
months or a few weeks, it's the older people, too, that's
the reason for the target because of their need for
companionship from what I understand.
Q. You were about to explain Step 2?
A. Step 2 now that they prep them, they're ready to send
the money because they're in love and they want to help
their lovers which is fraudsters. Step 2, now they're
getting ready to send money, there is no account to send the
money to, they can't send to them because a lot of times
they're not in U.S. or Nigeria sometime, they might be in
the US, they don't want association with that bank account.
Step 2 is when we come in, they find people like me or Rita
or whatever to open bank account where they can send the
money to, and the money can be -- you know they can do
whatever it is. Step 2 is to get the bank accounts, which
they will find people like me or whatever, get them to open
a business bank account and send the money to. And then
Step 3 is how they recover the money back to them, so we
keep the ten percent, and the 90 percent goes back to
whoever organized the whole account or whatever it is, and
so he can go back to the people that actually started the
fraud which is the fraudsters. So that's what I understood
the whole thing to work.
Q. Do you have an understanding based on your
conversation with Classic Baggie about how he got some of
this money back in Nigeria?
A. Yes. And he got it in few different ways, either it
will be through let's say, it will be through buying a car,
like he'll buy a car in the U.S. and ship it, the car will
be bought with the money that we have in our bank account
for example, and the car gets shipped to Nigeria, and when
it gets to Nigeria, they sell it and he recovers his money
that way. Originally he said that he had a money transfer
business where people, for example, give him money in
Nigeria, 10,000, whatever amount and then he would give them
the money in equivalent in the U.S., so he will also -- and
the money that he will give in the U.S. of course will be in
our bank account and you would tell me or you know, just
send so much amount of money to this person and you would do
it. So that's how he also recovers the money that way.
Q. Did Classic Baggie ever tell you how maybe people
worked for him as part of this operation?
A. Yeah, he told me over 20 people in the U.S. and
multiple others outside of the country.
Q. Did Classic Baggie ever tell you whether he had any
friends or relatives in America?
A. He told me he had a girlfriend in the U.S.
Q. I want to shift your attention and talk a little bit
about the day-to-day logistics of how you, Rita Assane and
Dwight Baines laundered money for Classic Baggie. Can you
first describe the different ways that you, Rita Assane and
Dwight Baines received money?
A. Sure. We received money through multiple different
ways, either it will be a check that will be sent to us in
the mail, or it will be a wire that will hit the account.
Or it will be a check deposited into the account, those are
the various ways.
Q. Let's focus on these checks getting mailed to you for
a second, did you know any of these people sending checks?
A. No.
Q. How did they know how and where to send checks to
you?
A. So, Classic Baggie, I will send -- he will ask for
addresses, whether its business address or whatever address,
and we will send it to him, so he will then send that
information to the fraudsters or the love, whoever, you
know, and they would take that, those checks -- not checks,
the address and forward it to whoever needs to send the
money.
Q. Did it work the same way for wire transfers, did he
know the people transferring money by wire into these bank
accounts?
A. No, not directly, no.
Q. Do you know how they got the bank account information
for your bank accounts and Rita's bank accounts and Dwight
Baines's bank accounts?
A. It would be through Classic Baggie.
Q. Was Classic Baggie the only person you gave your
address and the bank account information to?
A. Yes.
Q. So now I want to turn your attention to after the --
after a check was received as part of this operation, can
you explain what would happen next?
A. After a check is received, the first thing is that we
had to send the picture of the check to Classic Baggie so
just to -- he knows -- so he knows that we actually receive
a check so we have to send a confirmation. That was a
requirement. After you send a confirmation, you have to go
to the bank and deposit the money into your bank account and
he would tell us which one to deposit it into, because he
had access to all the big bank account, he said I know you
have money coming in this account, don't put the money here,
put the money into this account instead. So he would say
something like that, and you would put the money in the
account, you would send a receipt that it's been deposited,
and it takes two days to pay, and after that, he would send
instruction on what to do with it.
Q. After the money became available either through a
check clearing, or a wire deposit made into an account, can
you explain the instructions you would receive from Classic
Baggie about what to do next?
A. Yeah, so after the check clears, he would send me,
you know, the name, address, or wire info, or you know,
account number with the amount of money that he wanted to be
sent to whoever, and then we just do it.
Q. And would you personally be doing this or did you
forward those instructions on to other people?
A. I would forward it to either to Rita or Baines.
Q. Can you explain some of the different ways that
Classic Baggie asked you to distribute money to other
people?
A. The different ways would be again, through money
orders cashier check, or wire.
Q. For the cashier checks, how would you get it to the
people you were instructed to get it to?
A. The cashier check would be either, either you have
the bank account so you deposit directly to the bank account
or you mail it to them.
Q. What was the primary means that you used to mail
these cashier checks?
A. FedEx.
Q. What did you have to do or what were you instructed
to do after a FedEx shipment was made at Classic Baggie's
direction?
A. After a FedEx shipment was made, you have to take a
picture of the receipt with a tracking number and send it to
him so he knows that it's actually been done.
Q. Was that something that would happen every time a
FedEx shipment was made?
A. Yes.
Q. Typically, who would be taking the picture of that
FedEx receipt?
A. It would be Rita or Baines, and they would forward to
me, and I would forward to him.
Q. Did you keep track of the money that was getting
deposited into the bank accounts opened by Rita Assane and
Dwight Baines?
A. Yeah.
Q. Were all those deposits directed your way from
Classic Baggie?
A. Say that again, I'm sorry.
Q. Were the deposits being made into those bank accounts
all directed to you by Classic Baggie?
A. Yes, correct.
Q. What was your understanding of the source of all that
money?
A. After a while, we knew that it was from these
victims.
Q. Now, over the months, maybe a year you were working
with Classic Baggie, were you instructed to send money to
just a couple people or to a whole bunch of people and
businesses?
A. A whole bunch of people.
Q. Was there one person that Classic Baggie instructed
you to send money to more frequently than anybody else?
A. Yes.
Q. Who was that?
A. Lawal.
Q. Did you ever ask Classic Baggie why you were sending
so much money to Lawal?
A. Yes.
Q. What did he tell you?
A. Well, I remember exactly when that happened because
it was a payment that we had to send to him that was -- that
had taken time because it was a smaller bank and they
wouldn't release the money, and he thought it was our fault
so he basically called me to curse me out, like you need to
be moving faster than this, you know, this person need his
money, Lawal needs his money, and he was like that's his
money, you know. And basically, he said if we don't move
fast enough, no money is going to come, money is not going
to keep coming because you're moving too slow, he's the one
sending the money so you need to hurry up and get the money
out of the way.
Q. And the way Classic Baggie described his money, who
is the his in that sentence?
A. Lawal.
Q. And all of that money that was described as Lawal's
money, where was that money coming from?
A. From the victims.
Q. And is there a word that Classic Baggie used to
describe his relationship with Mr. Lawal?
A. Yes, it was his partner.
Q. His partner and what?
A. His partner, and you said.
Q. You said his partner in what?
A. In the romance fraud thing they had going on.
Q. Can you turn your attention to Government
Exhibit 402(q), in that larger binder in front of you.
Ms. Busch, if you could please pull up Government
Exhibit 402(q).
Zoom in on that top message, please, Ms. Busch.
Can you briefly state who these messages are between?
A. This is a forwarded message between Classic Baggie
and I.
Q. What was the date of this message?
A. January 6, 2020.
Q. And what did you understand it to mean when that term
forwarded appears on the top left-hand corner?
A. It was basically a message that I was forwarded from
Classic Baggie, from another person to Classic Baggie and he
sent it to me.
Q. Can you read what is contained in this message?
A. Sure. Olugbenga Lawal, 3470 Highfield court,
Indianapolis, Indiana 46222.
Q. Ms. Busch, can you scroll down to the bottom message
of page 1.
What are you asking Classic Baggie in this
message?
A. I'm asking him how much to send to that address that
they send.
Q. Ms. Busch, if you turn to the last page of this
exhibit. Zoom in on the bottom message.
What does that state?
A. Do 10K, 10,000 money order.
Q. Based on your reading of these messages between you
and Classic Baggie, what do you understand Classic Baggie to
be asking you to do on January 6th of 2020?
A. He's asking me to send the $10,000 money order to
Lawal, Olugbenga Lawal at the address in Highfield Court in
Indianapolis, Indiana.
Q. Please turn to the portion of this binder that is the
300 series of exhibits, and turn first to Government
Exhibit 301(a). Look up at me when you have gotten yourself
to 301(a).
A. Yes.
Q. If you could just briefly take a moment to look
through 301(a) through 315, just to get an understanding of
who these messages are between.
A. You said 301(a) through 315?
Q. Yes.
A. (Witness reviewing. ) Yes.
Q. And who are these messages between?
A. These are messages between Rita Assane and I.
Q. And is there any common theme to most of those
messages?
A. Yeah. It is our forwarded messages for the most part
that I sent to Ms. Rita Assane from Classic Baggie.
Q. Ms. Busch, could we please pull up Government
Exhibit 301(a). And if you could zoom in on the bottom
message.
Can you explain what is happening in this
message, Mr. Hermann?
A. Sure. Again, this is a forwarded message from
Classic Baggie that I sent over to Rita with instructions to
send $20,000 cashier check, and a $7,200 money order mailed
to Lawal Olugbenga at 3470 Highfield Court Indianapolis,
Indiana 46222.
Q. What's the date of that message?
A. January 14, 2020.
Q. Thank you, Ms. Busch.
Mr. Hermann, can you turn to Government
Exhibit 303.
A. Yes.
Q. What's the date of this message?
A. January 24, 2020.
Q. And what's going on in the message in Government
Exhibit 303?
A. This is another forwarded message from Classic Baggie
that I sent over to Rita Assane with instruction to send
$54,000 to Lawal Olugbenga at 3470 Highfield Court
Indianapolis, Indiana 46222.
Q. Ms. Busch could you please pull up the top message of
Government Exhibit 303.
Is that the message you were just referring to?
A. Yes.
Q. Ms. Busch, can you scroll down to the second message?
That contains the amount, $54,000?
A. Correct.
Q. Can you please turn to Government Exhibit 305?
A. Sure.
Q. What's the date of this message?
A. This is January 31st, 2020.
Q. Ms. Busch, could you please pull up Government
Exhibit 305 and zoom in on the top message?
Mr. Hermann, what do you understand the messages
to mean in Government Exhibit 305?
A. This is another forwarded message from Classic Baggie
that I sent over to Rita Assane with instruction to send
Lawal Olugbenga at the address 3470 Highfield Court
Indianapolis, Indiana 46222 for a sum of $20,000 in a
cashier check.
Q. Can you scroll down to that second message. Please
turn to Government Exhibit 306, Mr. Hermann. Thank you,
Ms. Busch.
Take a moment to read through these messages.
A. (Witness reviewing documents. )
Q. What's the date on these messages, Mr. Hermann?
A. February 4th, 2020.
Q. And what did you take away from the messages you
exchanged between yourself and Ms. Assane in this exhibit?
A. In this exhibit, we are discussing checks that used
to be going to Lawal with the amount of $13,200, for the
amount with the address of Lawal at 3470 Highfield Court
Indianapolis, Indiana 46222, so that's another payment for
$13,200.
Q. Ms. Busch, would you please pull up Government
Exhibit 306 and zoom in on page two, the second to last
message.
What are you instructed Ms. Assane there?
A. I'm instructing her to send $13,200.
Q. Can you scroll down to the last message, that is the
address you're instructing her to send it to?
A. Yes.
Q. Lawal Olugbenga?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you zoom out to this whole page. This looks a
little bit different than the other messages. We didn't
look at messages in foreign language just now, but are some
of these messages in a dialect of French?
A. Yes.
Q. And have we gone over instances where those messages
have been translated?
A. Sure.
Q. For certain select messages?
A. Yes.
Q. And when we have done that, have we gone over whether
you agree or not with the translations?
A. Sure, yes.
Q. These aren't translations you did, correct?
A. No.
Q. Have you generally agreed with the translations as
they have appeared on the documents that have been
translated?
A. Yes.
Q. Thank you, Ms. Busch.
Mr. Hermann, can you turn to Government
Exhibit 307. Ms. Busch, if you could pull up the bottom
message of Government Exhibit 307. Take a look at this
Government Exhibit, Mr. Hermann and tell me what's going on
in these messages.
A. Sure. In this message, this is also forwarded
message from Classic Baggie that I sent over to Rita Assane,
and this is more instructions to send, in this case, $50,000
to Lawal Olugbenga at the address 3470 Highfield Court
Indianapolis, Indiana.
Q. What is the date of this message?
A. February 6, 2020.
Q. Can you scroll down to the top of page 2. That's
where you -- the amount you understood you had to send to
Lawal Olugbenga?
A. Correct.
Q. If you could turn to Government Exhibit 308(a).
Ms. Busch, if you could just zoom in only on the top message
of 308(a).
Mr. Hermann, what do you understand this message
to mean?
A. This is a message that I sent to Rita Assane,
basically saying he want cashier check from the Chase
account, $3,500 mailed to Lawal.
Q. Who is the he in that message?
A. Classic Baggie.
Q. I don't see that as a forwarded message, where would
you have gotten that instruction from?
A. I got it from him.
Q. Him being Classic Baggie?
A. Classic Baggie, yes.
Q. And you agree with that English translation of your
message?
A. Yes. Yes.
Q. Can you turn to Government Exhibit 308(c).
Ms. Busch, can you please pull up Government Exhibit 308(c),
and zoom in only on that middle message. What's the date on
that message, Mr. Hermann?
A. February 11, 2020.
Q. Can you read the English translation of that message?
A. Sure. It says because really we ship too much to
this Lawal.
Q. Why did you send that to Ms. Assane?
A. I sent that because we were sending way too many
shipments or cashier checks to that same address, it kept
coming up and we're sending it without real name, real
address and everything like that, so we're concerned at some
point there is going to be some issues, so I'm telling her
to be careful, we need to use a different name or not put
our own name on that shipment because it became too much,
too frequent.
Q. Turn to Government Exhibit 310. Can you briefly read
through the first and second page, and tell me what these
messages mean?
A. These are more forwarded message that -- well, more
instructions that are sent to Rita with Lawal Olugbenga's
address to send $50,000.
Q. Ms. Busch, can you please pull up the top message on
the first page of Government Exhibit 310?
Why are you sending that name and address to
Ms. Assane?
A. I sent it from instruction from Classic Baggie to
send more money to Lawal.
Q. Ms. Busch, can you scroll down to the next message?
What is Ms. Assane writing here?
A. Yes.
Q. What is Ms. Assane writing here?
A. Oh, $50,000.
Q. Can you go to the next message, Ms. Busch. And go to
the top message on page 2.
What did you respond?
A. I responded yes.
Q. And what did you mean when you said yes?
A. Yes, $50,000.
Q. Can you turn to Government Exhibit 311? What do you
understand these messages to mean, Mr. Hermann?
A. These are forwarded messages from Classic Baggie that
I sent to Rita with instruction to send $87,000 to Luxe
Logistics LLC, to the PNC Bank account, and I sent also the
account number and address.
Q. Where did you get all that information from?
A. From Classic Baggie.
Q. Ms. Busch, can you scroll down to the next message?
Is that why you're referring to sending $87,000?
A. Yes.
Q. Mr. Hermann, can you please turn to what's marked as
Government Exhibit 312(b). Ms. Busch, if you could please
pull up the bottom message through 12(b).
That indicates a forwarded message. Who would
that have been forwarded from?
A. From Classic Baggie.
Q. Can you read what that says on that message?
A. My own address 3512 North Dukane Way Indianapolis,
Indiana 46224.
Q. And what is the date of that message?
A. This is February -- this is April 3rd, 2020.
Q. Now, did you live at 3512 North Dukane Way?
A. No.
Q. Did Classic Baggie live at 3512 North Dukane Way?
A. No.
Q. Who did you learn was associated with 3512 North
Dukane Way?
A. Lawal.
Q. Please turn to Government Exhibit 313. Ms. Busch, if
you could pull up the top message of Government Exhibit 313.
Who did you forward this message from?
A. From Classic Baggie to Rita.
Q. What is the date of this message?
A. April 4th, 2020.
Q. Can you please read this message?
A. Sure. Help me send the money order to my new
address, 3512 North Dukane Way Indianapolis, Indiana 46224.
Q. Ms. Busch can you scroll down to the second message.
What does that message say?
A. Lawal Olugbenga.
Q. Ms. Busch, can you please scroll to the next message
on the top of page 2?
What does that message say?
A. 10K money order.
Q. What were you instructing Ms. Assane to do during
these messages?
A. Instructing her to send a $10,000 money order to
Lawal Olugbenga at the new address that was provided to us.
Q. Can you turn to Government Exhibit 315? And could
you briefly describe while Ms. Busch pulls up the top
message, what's going on in these messages?
A. Sure. This is another forwarded message from Classic
Baggie that I sent over to Rita, instructing her to send
$5,000 money order to Lawal so --
Q. Can you scroll down to the middle message?
A. Lawal Olugbenga 3512 North Dukane Way Indianapolis,
Indiana 46224.
Q. Can you read that message, Mr. Hermann, put that up
on the screen?
A. Sure. You can mail money order to Lawal Olugbenga
3512 North Dukane Way Indianapolis, Indiana 46224.
Q. Where did you forward that message from?
A. From Classic Baggie.
Q. Now, we just looked at quite a few messages between
January 2020, and the April of 2020 and we may look at one
or two more. That every single instruction that you ever
sent to Ms. Assane concerning Mr. Lawal?
A. Yeah. I mean, not, is it every single instruction?
Yeah, for the most part, yeah.
Q. For the most part that was the number of times you
were instructing Ms. Assane to send money?
A. Right. Correct.
Q. Mr. Hermann, can you turn your attention to what's
marked as 405(a). Can you just let me know when you have
reached 405(a).
A. Yes.
Q. Now, are these messages between different people in
this exhibit?
A. Yes, this is messages between Dwight Baines and I.
Q. And Ms. Busch, if we could please pull up the bottom
message of Government Exhibit 405(a). What are you -- what
does this message mean?
A. This is instruction that I sent to Dwight Baines,
basically from Luxe Logistics LLC, to send 19,247.
Q. Is this the example of the type of instruction you
would also send to Dwight Baines as part of your money
laundering operation?
A. Yes.
Q. Thank you, Ms. Busch. All this money, the $50,000
checks, the $13,200 checks, the $10,000 in money orders,
what was the source of every dollar of that money you were
instructing people to send to Lawal?
A. What was that question again?
Q. What was the source, where did all the money come
from that you were sending to Lawal?
A. It was from the romance fraud victims.
Q. That was your understanding?
A. Yes.
Q. I want to shift gears just a little bit. Were you
ever made aware that Rita Assane or Dwight Baines had
problems getting the money out of the accounts that had been
deposited?
A. Yes.
Q. And we talked about some of those issues?
A. Yes.
Q. Would you bring those issues to Classic Baggie's
attention?
A. Yes.
Q. Would you have conversations with him about it?
A. Yes.
Q. What could he do about it?
A. He could possibly fix it sometimes, sometimes he
couldn't, but we had to write it to his attention if
something happens.
Q. How could he fix it, was he calling the banks?
A. No.
Q. Could you explain how that happened, how he could
ever fix a problem you were having with one of your bank
accounts?
A. Well, first we have to tell him if anything happens
because then he would think that we did it or we trying to
steal his money. But we had to tell him because he could
contact the people that sent the money to try to contact the
bank or you know, something like that and fix the problem.
Q. Did you ever have issues with -- either you, Rita
Assane, or Dwight Baines have issues with withdrawn money by
a woman that had been sent and deposited into your accounts
by the name of Debra?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you bring those issues to Classic Baggie's
attention?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you flip in your binder to what is marked as
402(k-4) through 402(k-9). Please take a moment to look at
each of those exhibits in 402(k-4) through 402(k-9) and look
up at me when you have had a chance to do that.
A. (Witness reviewing documents. ) Yes.
Q. And are those conversations between yourself and
Classic Baggie?
A. Yes.
Q. And what are you discussing over the course of those
Government Exhibits?
A. In these messages, we discussing pretty much, it's a
situation that happened where $60,000 was stuck, frozen or
on hold from the bank, and we couldn't get the money out
what I contacted him for so he could help and try to figure
out exactly what happened, what's going on. And in here, he
is sending me the conversation between the victim and the
fraud center in this situation to try to fix the situation,
trying to fix the issue.
Q. Ms. Busch, can you pull up Government
Exhibit 402(k-4) and go right on the middle message. Is
that what you're describing when you said Classic Baggie
sent you a screen shot of the conversation between the
victim and their lover?
A. Yes.
Q. Could we please pull up the larger version of that
attachment, Government Exhibit 402(k-5). Can you explain
what exactly you understood this conversation, who you
understand this conversation to be between?
A. Yes. So this is a conversation between the actual
victim and the lover, here she is mentioning that they need
an invoice, I guess the bank needed an invoice, to, you know
that we had to make an invoice from KLAM Property that shows
that the $60,000 she sent is actually legitimate to make
sure those are her pattern or it matches whatever she is
saying, whatever she sent.
Q. So Classic Baggie had that message to send to you?
A. Yes.
Q. And what did you do -- thank you, Ms. Busch -- as a
result of this conversation with Classic Baggie?
A. I made an invoice.
Q. And Ms. Busch, could we please pull up Government
Exhibit 402(k-8). And zoom in on that bottom message.
Does that reflect you sending an attachment to
Classic Baggie?
A. Yes.
Q. Ms. Busch, could you pull up 402(k-9), which
attachment contained on that message. Is this the invoice
we were just talking about?
A. That's correct, yes.
Q. Who created this invoice?
A. I did.
Q. Who did you send it to?
A. That is Classic Baggie.
Q. What was the purpose of this invoice?
A. Is to resolve the issue of the $60,000 that was on
hold.
Q. What's the name in the to line of this invoice?
A. Debra Ann Czodli.
Q. Did you understand that to be the victim who message
you were sent by Classic Baggie?
A. Correct.
Q. I want to talk a little bit more and turn your
attention back to the role that cars played in the money
laundering operation you did with Classic Baggie. And we
touched on this a little bit earlier in your testimony. We
talked about the name Bespoke?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you explain whether that name is an entity you
were instructed to send money to over and over again?
A. Yes. Bespoke was one of the first checks that was
issued under Classic Baggie's instruction, the $122,000, it
was sent to Bespoke.
Q. Did he send you more instructions to send money to
Bespoke after that?
A. Yes.
Q. What other types of car dealerships or places that
sold cars would be instructed to send money to?
A. We got to make checks payable to auction places, car
auctions, and other regular dealerships to buy different
cars.
Q. And do you remember the name of any of those car
auction houses?
A. Sure, one of them was IA
A. And another one was
Copart.
Q. What was your understanding of what was happening
with all these checks that you were making payable to car
auction houses and car dealerships?
A. My understanding is that they bid on those cars
early, buy them, win the bid, and then we have to go cut the
check, whatever amount you tell me to, and just pay them so
the car can be paid off so you know, it didn't sit on the
auction or whatever. So they already bid on and everything,
everything is taken care of, they say pay it so we can pick
it up and ship it and do what we had to do.
Q. Where did these cars get shipped?
A. For the most part, Nigeria.
Q. That's based on conversations you had with Classic
Baggie?
A. Yes.
Q. Again, what money were you, Rita Assane, and Dwight
Baines using when sending these checks to the car auction
houses and the car dealerships?
A. We were using the romance money that was deposited
into an account.
Q. At some point were you contacted by the FBI in
relation to all this money laundering activity?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you remember that first time you were contacted by
the FBI?
A. Yes.
Q. About when was it?
A. It was around May of 2020.
Q. Did you tell Classic Baggie that the FBI had
contacted you?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you tell me about that conversation you had with
him?
A. Sure. I remember I was with Rita and we called him
freaking out, like, you know, they contacted us and
everything like that, like what to do, are we going to be in
trouble, things like that. And he basically calmed us down
and said that you know, it's going to be fine, get rid of
anything evidence wise that you have and he's going to try
to keep everything under control on his end, as far as the
client goes, if they don't talk, nobody will get in trouble,
just to get everything and calm everyone else.
Q. Did you attempt to follow those instructions?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you go into phones and delete messages?
A. Yes.
Q. A lot of messages?
A. Yes.
Q. Messages between yourself and Classic Baggie?
A. Yes.
Q. Messages between yourself and Dwight Baines?
A. Yes.
Q. Messages between yourself and Rita Assane?
A. Yes.
Q. Did Classic Baggie ask if you had talked to the FBI?
A. Yes.
Q. What did you tell him?
A. I told him I didn't.
Q. Was that the truth at the time?
A. Yeah, at the time it was.
MR. WENGER: At this time I have no further questions, Your Honor.
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