Waltham Non-Profit Defrauded Of $126K, 2 People Charged

WALTHAM, MA — Two Texas residents face charges after officials said they were part of a scheme to defraud a Waltham-based nonprofit.

Paul Webb of Terrell, Texas, and Montrail Brooks of DeSoto, Texas, were arrested last month following an investigation by Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s Criminal Bureau.

Webb and Brooks were arraigned yesterday in Middlesex Superior Court.

Webb was arraigned on the charges of money laundering and receiving stolen property. Brooks was arraigned on the charges of money laundering and two counts of receiving stolen property.

Both Webb and Brooks were indicted by a Middlesex Grand Jury last September for money laundering and receiving stolen property worth more than $1,200.

During October and November of 2021, Webb and Brooks took part in a scheme to defraud a Waltham-based nonprofit organization affiliated with a local university, officials said. Webb and Brooks received a total of $126,000 into various shell companies and then laundered the funds to hide their unlawful origin, officials added.

The scheme was accomplished through a “business email compromise,” a form of cybercrime that exploits email vulnerabilities in an effort to fraudulently re-direct business and other funds by posing as a legitimate business partner or contractor.

In this case, the nonprofit organization received messages from a known email address asking for the disbursement of specific funding amounts mentioned in previous, legitimate emails.

While the emails requesting these wire transfers were fraudulent, they successfully mimicked signature details of the previous, legitimate emails and the perpetrators went so far as to draft and submit invoices for the amounts being stolen, officials said.

The AG’s Financial Investigations Division was able to successfully follow the stolen funds through the many bank accounts designed to obscure the fraud and identify Webb and Brooks as perpetrators.