Tralee Circuit Court has heard that a man accused of money laundering would clear his bank account through withdrawals and transfers in the days after payments were made into his account.
34-year-old Dominic Nokwe of House M, Fountain Court, Tralee, faces 17 counts of money laundering, totalling over €90,000.
His trial continues before Judge Sinead Behan at Tralee Circuit Criminal Court.
It is the state’s case that 17 payments were made into the Ulster Bank, AIB, and Bank of Ireland accounts of Mr Nokwe, totalling over €90,000, between May 2019 and March 2020, and that these were the proceeds of criminal conduct.
The prosecution also argues that Mr Nokwe, in having possession of these funds, either knew or was reckless as to whether they were the proceeds of criminal conduct.
Bank of Ireland fraud investigator Ian Roche outlined the payments made into Mr Nokwe’s Bank of Ireland account relating to each relevant count.
These payments came from companies in countries including United States, India, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
The court heard that the named beneficiaries in some of these payments were companies in Hungary and Germany, but that in fact they would not receive the money, and it would instead end up in the account of Mr Nokwe.
The jury were shown copies of Mr Nokwe’s bank statements.
The court heard Mr Nokwe made repeated withdrawals from ATMs, the post office, and digitally transferred the money out of the account in the days after these payments ended up in his account.
In one case, the court heard Mr Nokwe’s Bank of Ireland balance was €8.82 on September 17th 2019, prior to a payment of €1,314 arriving in his account.
Mr Roche gave evidence that through withdrawals over the following three days, Mr Nokwe had reduced his balance back down to €116.
Mr Roche told the court that he placed a block on Mr Nokwe’s Bank of Ireland account in October 2019, and closed the account in January 2020.
