Lakewood Man Gets Prison For Unlicensed Money Transfer Business

TRENTON, NJ — A Lakewood man who operated unlicensed money transmitting business out of a beeper store he owned has been sentenced to a year and nine months in prison, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced Wednesday.

Yisroel Malamud, 54, of Lakewood, pleaded guilty in February 2017 to running the unlicensed business out of Beepers Plus, Carpenito's office said. U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson accepted the plea last year and imposed the 21-month sentence on Wednesday. He faced up to five years in prison, authorities said.

According to court documents, Malamud maintained a retail storefront in Lakewood called Beepers Plus, where between January 2010 and May 2013 he received money from members of the public, deposited the funds into bank accounts that he maintained in the name of different entities, and then transmitted the money – determined to be more than $6 million – from those bank accounts to third parties within the United States, in accordance with the customers’ instructions, charging the customers a fee for this service.

Federal law requires anyone conducting such a business to register the business with the Secretary of the Treasury; failure to do so is a felony under New Jersey state law. Malamud did not possess and failed to obtain a money transmitting license, nor did he register with the Secretary of the Treasury, officials said.

Malamud also was sentenced to three years of supervised release. Forfeiture will be determined at a later date, Carpenito's office said.

Image via Shutterstock