Ghaleb Alaumary, a dual Canadian-U.S. national from Mississauga, Ontario, was sentenced in federal court on September 8, 2021, to 140 months in prison for pleading guilty to two money-laundering conspiracy counts. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) also said he was ordered to pay more than $30 million in restitution and serve three years of supervised release after prison. Prosecutors described his role as arranging and moving proceeds from several fraud and cybercrime schemes—not as personally carrying out every underlying intrusion.
What Alaumary was sentenced for
In its September 8, 2021 announcement, the DOJ identified Alaumary as 36 years old and a dual Canadian and U.S. national from Mississauga. He pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The sentence was 140 months in federal prison, restitution of more than $30 million, and three years of supervised release following prison.
The sentence concerned his money-laundering role across multiple schemes. The official account describes him arranging access to accounts and people who could move or withdraw stolen funds. It does not say that he personally conducted every bank intrusion or fraud used to generate those funds.
How the schemes worked
Spoofed invoice email targeting a Canadian university
DOJ said that in 2017, co-conspirators sent emails made to appear as if they came from a construction company seeking payment for a major building project. This is a form of business email compromise (BEC): an impersonation or spoofing email designed to convince an organization to send money to a fraudster-controlled account. The university wired CAD $11.8 million, approximately USD $9.4 million, to an account controlled by Alaumary and co-conspirators.
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According to DOJ, Alaumary arranged for people in the United States and elsewhere to launder the funds through financial institutions. The account does not establish that the construction company’s email system itself was hacked; it describes emails that appeared to come from the company.
Impersonation of bank customers in Texas
Weeks after the university transfer, a co-conspirator traveled to Texas several times and impersonated wealthy bank customers. DOJ said the impersonator used stolen personally identifiable information to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from victims’ accounts. This was a separate means of generating illicit proceeds, not the same transaction as the university’s wire.
ATM cash-outs and proceeds from bank cyber-heists
In the second money-laundering case, DOJ said Alaumary recruited and organized people to withdraw stolen cash from ATMs. He also provided accounts that received money from bank cyber-heists and fraud schemes. The described laundering methods included bank-account transfers, wire transfers, cash withdrawals, and converting funds to cryptocurrency.
Where the money and victims were connected
DOJ said the funds handled in the schemes included proceeds from a 2019 cyber-heist of a Maltese bank perpetrated by North Korean cyber criminals. That attribution refers to the bank intrusion; it should not be read as saying Alaumary carried it out. Prosecutors described his role in receiving or laundering proceeds.
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The DOJ’s account identifies a broad set of affected parties: banks headquartered in India, Pakistan, and Malta; companies in the United States and United Kingdom; U.S. individuals; and a professional soccer club in the United Kingdom. These are case-specific victims and entities, not a measure of how common such crimes are.
How investigators built the case
The DOJ said the U.S. Secret Service investigated, with assistance from its Global Investigative Operations Center, the FBI, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Prosecutors came from the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, and the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of Georgia and Central District of California.
In the DOJ’s September 8, 2021 release, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Criminal Division said: “International money launderers provide critical services to cybercriminals, helping hackers and fraudsters to avoid detection and hide their illicit profits,”
Acting U.S. Attorney David H. Estes for the Southern District of Georgia described Alaumary as “an integral conduit in a network of cybercriminals who siphoned tens of millions of dollars from multiple entities and institutions across the globe,”
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Special Agent in Charge Steven R. Baisel of the U.S. Secret Service Atlanta Field Office said the sentencing “speaks to the value of investigative collaboration across borders,” while FBI Criminal Investigative Division Assistant Director Calvin A. Shivers said the sentence demonstrated that launderers “can’t evade detection from the FBI and our law enforcement partners.”
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Sources and scope
The case details and sentence are from the DOJ’s September 8, 2021 announcement, which the department marks as archived and notes was updated February 6, 2025. A SecurityWeek report published September 9, 2021 also summarized the case. These sources establish the historical sentence and prosecutors’ account; they do not establish Alaumary’s current custody or release status.
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