A Porthmadog man has been jailed for seven years and eight months for his part in a multi-million-dollar email fraud against an American company.

Michael Kinane, of High Street, was jailed on Tuesday at Caernarfon Crown Court.

The 41-year-old, a Sri Lankan-born British citizen, had previously pleaded guilty to his part in a crime which involved infiltrating the email systems of a London-based pharmaceutical investment company, from his home in Porthmadog.

Fake emails were sent to authorised personnel within the US victim’s company requesting that payments due for legitimate work, be paid into new accounts, one of which was the account of Kinane.

On 2 November 2018, $7.8 million entered into the accounts of Mr Kinane from the victim company.

In the following three days, the funds were dispersed to accounts in Poland, Germany, Hong Kong, China and Malaysia. 

As a result of a parallel investigation by North Wales Police and the FBI which began in November of 2018, Kinane was arrested on 8 August 2019 at Gatwick Airport having flown into the UK via Turkey.

Three days later he was charged with conspiracy to launder money, and three offences of fraud by false representation relating to his acquisition of prestige vehicles.

North Wales Police said it has obtained banking documentation for 32 accounts attributable to Kinane so far.

The 13-month investigation has resulted in the recovery and repatriation of over $1.5m to the victim. The total outstanding funds are over $6m.

DCI Brian Kearney, senior investigating officer, said: “Fraud is the most commonly experienced crime in the UK. In the last crime recording year, there were over 4,600 frauds in North Wales reported to Action Fraud, representing an £8.9m loss.

“The impact of fraud and related offences can be devastating and can range from unaffordable personal losses suffered by vulnerable victims to impacting the ability of organisations to stay in business. 

“With a significant increase of fraud now being committed online this enables fraudsters to exploit victims remotely, often from another country.

“What is clear is that businesses and high-net-worth individuals are now being increasingly targeted due to their larger financial transactions and the greater potential profits for fraudsters.

“This case has been solved because of the support we have received from the companies concerned, the work of the FBI in their parallel investigation and the excellent support we have received from the Specialist Fraud Division of the Crown Prosecution Service in Merseyside.

“Significant funds, in excess of $1.6m, have been recovered by the NCA UK Financial Investigation Unit and the Joint Money Laundering Investigation Task Force.

“I am grateful to the companies involved in this case for their support and co-operation throughout this investigation.”