A 34-year-old man has been found guilty by a jury of 17 counts of money laundering at Tralee Circuit Court.
Dominic Nokwe of House M, Fountain Court, Tralee, stood trial this week on the 17 counts, which related to a total of over €90,000.
After deliberating for close to five hours, the jury of eight men and four women now found him guilty of all counts by unanimous verdict.
Mr Nokwe received 17 different payments into AIB, Ulster Bank, and Bank of Ireland accounts over the course of ten months between May 2019 and March 2020.
The jury was told these 17 payments were reflected in the 17 counts of money laundering.
The jury was told these were the proceeds of criminal conduct, and Mr Nokwe was reckless as to whether the money coming in and out of his account was the proceeds of criminal conduct.
Some of these payments were made by companies in countries including the United States, India, Singapore, and Hong Kong, intending to pay other companies in countries including Germany and Hungary.
In one case, the South Korean government had attempted to pay for PPE during the pandemic from a German company for €18,000.
The money, however, never reached any of these companies, and instead ended up in the three bank accounts of Mr Nokwe.
He had argued that he was helping out his cousin by giving him access to his bank account, who needed help after fleeing war-torn Cameroon.
Mr Nokwe said he had trusted his cousin, but he was now a victim of the whole thing and knew nothing about where the money came from.
The jury was shown bank records which showed Mr Nokwe was clearing the accounts when payments came in, showing he did have control of the accounts.
Garda Anthony Wharton, who was the investigating garda, gave evidence that Mr Nokwe did this by withdrawing hundreds of euro at a time at ATMs and in the post office, and using an online payments system to transfer money.
Mr Nokwe said he was withdrawing the money to give it to a friend of his cousin, who needed help with his business.
After deliberating for close to five hours, the jury came to a unanimous verdict of guilty on all counts.
Senior Counsel for the defence Brian McInerney applied for bail for his client, as he had lived in Ireland for nine years and had abided by bail conditions on remand.
Judge Sinead Behan said his situation is changed, and these are serious offences, and she remanded him in custody to January 14th for sentencing.
