Owings Mills Woman Scammed People Out Of $4.3M: Prosecutors

BALTIMORE, MD — An Owings Mills woman recently pleaded guilty to tax evasion and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to federal officials. Prosecutors said the woman, her father and her former fiancé were part of the scheme.

Lauren Montillo, 47, of Owings Mills, admitted to receiving $4,342,540 in advance fees through a scam in which she and others created shell companies to defraud unsuspecting victims in the U.S. and internationally from 2010 to 2015 by pretending to offer financial services, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said that Montillo and her former fiancé, Eric Becker, who has since died, created websites for fake businesses that claimed to offer products like bank guarantees, bonds, standby letters of credit and private placement trading platforms.

They did not have access to any of the financial tools they purported to offer and in one case, officials said they persuaded a Mexican national to send more than $3 million to an account in Hong Kong.

In that case, Montillo and the others involved in the scheme allegedly pretended to offer a private placement trading platform that would give the man a portion of the profits and some to a charitable organization. To make the scam appear legitimate, prosecutors said Montillo even created an insurance policy for a non-existent insurance company called International Insurance of Nebraska to show that the victim's investment funds "would not be at risk because they were fully insured." She allegedly created a website for the fake insurance company on GoDaddy.

Prosecutors said she and the others involved in the conspiracy created fake email addresses, websites and bank accounts for these bogus companies from 2010 to 2015:

• MLL Holdings
• The Bussola Group
• Worldwide Escrow Holdings Ltd.
• International Insurance of Nebraska
• Atlas Investment Bancorp
• Entirety Capital
• GPF Global
• Atlas-Gayle Trust

In addition to Montillo, three people in Texas were charged in the conspiracy — two with wire fraud and one with money laundering.

Becker and Montillo's father, who were also allegedly involved, have both died, officials said.

After scamming people out of their money, prosecutors said Montillo, who used the name "Kati Conti" during her schemes, would "go dark" and stop communicating with the victims. She used a burner phone as part of the scam, officials said.

Federal officials said that the scammers tried to get at least $8.7 million from the victims were successful in conning people out of more than $4.3 million.

From 2012 to 2014, Montillo reported $100 in income to the IRS, evading "a substantial amount of income taxes," according to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland.

She faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud conspiracy and up to five years in prison for tax evasion.

As part of her plea agreement, Montillo will have to forfeit $849,993.12 and pay restitution of at least $4,342,540, according to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland. She entered the guilty plea on Nov. 29, which authorities said was days before she was slated to go to trial.

U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett has scheduled sentencing in Baltimore for 10 a.m. on April 12, 2019.

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