Green Brook Sister, Brother Sentenced In $3.7M Scam

GREEN BROOK, NJ — A Green Brook sister and her brother were sentenced Wednesday to prison for their roles in running a multi-million dollar fraudulent invoice scheme, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.

Shevandra Verasawmi, 38, of Matawan was sentenced to 87 months in prison and Vishallie Verasawmi, 37, of Green Brook was sentenced to 48 months in prison.

Both were found guilty of all four counts of an indictment charging them with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and three counts of mail fraud. They were previously convicted in April and arrested in July 2017.

From April 2016 through August 2016, Shevandra and Vishallie Verasawmi tricked a company into paying shell companies that were incorporated by Shevandra. Despite the fact that the shell companies never had contracts for goods or services with the victim company, Vishallie used her position as an employee of vicitm company to add the shell companies to the victim company's accounts payable system, according to the indictment.

Shevandra and Vishallie then submitted dozens of fake invoices to the victim company and then deposited the fake proceeds into bank accounts they controlled, according to the indictment.

In total, Shevandra and Vishallie tried to divert millions of dollars belonging to the victim company and spent the proceeds on personal expenses, including luxury cars and credit card payments.

In addition to the prison terms, they were both sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay a restitution of $1,066,830. Vishallie Verasawmi was also ordered to forfeit the BMW.

(Image via Shutterstock)

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