Poupak Jannissar, Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud and Money Laundering, Nevada 2024

A Canadian man pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering in connection with a scheme to steal millions of dollars from thousands of victims in the United States.

Poupak Jannissar, 52, of Quebec, Canada, operated and controlled sham companies that used fake checks and other fraudulent debits to steal from victims’ accounts at banks in the United States.

The defendant and his co-conspirators used various names for the sham companies, including Computer Run, EBooks, Joreeb, Memo Storage, Our Online Backup, You Can Fax Too and Your E-Library. These companies pretended to sell various internet-based services for consumers, such as cloud storage, internet faxing and online books. However, the sham companies did not actually provide any real products or services.

Instead, the sham companies served to conceal the theft of money from bank accounts by Jannissar and his co-conspirators. According to court documents, Jannissar and his co-conspirators bought lists containing misappropriated personal information belonging to thousands of potential victims.

Jannissar and his co-conspirators then falsely represented to banks and others that individual victims had authorized debits from their bank accounts. If the individual victims did not notice and dispute initial charges made by the sham companies, the sham companies would fraudulently debit bank accounts multiple times.

Jannissar and his co-conspirators transferred money they stole to accounts in Canada. Jannissar pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of money laundering in front of U.S. District Judge Andrew P. Gordon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada.

Jannissar was arrested on Jan. 22, at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida based on a criminal complaint and arrest warrant issued in the District of Nevada by U.S. Magistrate Judge Brenda Weksler.

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