A New York City man has pleaded guilty to money laundering after nearly $500,000 was stolen by Columbus-based exercise equipment manufacturer Rogue Fitness.
Aleksandr Bogomolny, 53, of the Brooklyn borough of New York, pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Columbus to conspiracy to commit and commit money laundering through a sports betting app after using computer software to steal money from Rogue Fitness , according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
In 2021, Rogue Fitness reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center that it identified 78 outgoing transfers from a PayPal account between March 29 and April 29, 2021, totaling nearly half a million dollars.
A Rogue Fitness representative unloads weights at the company’s trade show booth at the Arnold Sports Festival on Feb. 28, 2024 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.
During the investigation, the FBI discovered a banking Trojan horse program that infected a customer service representative’s computer just before the transfer, the release said. The FBI is aware that the specific program on the employee’s laptop steals banking information and usually targets corporate victims.
According to Norton antivirus software, a Trojan horse program is a type of malware that hides in a legitimate file or program to gain access to a victim’s computer system.
The stolen money was transferred to 22 different credit card numbers, including Bogomolny’s Bank of America card, according to the release. Further investigation by Bogomolny’s bank shows that he laundered more than $247,000 in stolen money through his account between December 2019 and July 2021.
Bogomolny also used the online gambling site FanDuel to conspire to launder money, stealing a victim’s identity and using it to create a FanDuel account, the release said. The proceeds from criminal activities were then deposited into the account and later withdrawn.
In total, Bogomolny and others used this scheme to deposit nearly $572,000 and withdraw more than $485,000 of the criminal proceeds.
In 2023, Bogomolnyt met with undercover FBI agents and agreed to launder $20,000, presented as money from drug sales, for a 6% fee, the release said. During 2023 and 2024, Bogomolny sent $18,800 of the original $20,000 back to the undercover FBI agents.
Bogomolny later agreed to accept another $50,000 from the undercover officers. He met the officers in April 2024 and accepted the money, after which he was arrested.
Money laundering and conspiring to launder money are federal crimes that carry up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Congress sets the maximum statutory penalty, and the defendant’s sentencing will be determined by the court at a future hearing.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Theft from Columbus-based Rogue Fitness leads to guilty pleas from New York man
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