Massachusetts Man Sentenced for Cheating Chicken Products Suppliers

A Massachusetts man who pleaded guilty to defrauding Texas chicken products companies out of $630,000 through a fake invoice scheme has been sentenced to more than four years in federal prison, prosecutors said.

Yannick Minang, 27, of Hingham was sentenced last week, The Patriot Ledger reported Monday.

Minang fooled two Texas companies by submitting false invoices purportedly from chicken parts suppliers in Brazil, prosecutors said. He took some money as cash and transferred much of it overseas, authorities said.

Minang used a type of fraud referred to as business email compromise, in which the fraud is carried out by spoofing legitimate business email accounts, according to court documents.

In addition to prison time, Minang was ordered to pay more than $522,000 in restitution.

Minang pleaded guilty last year to multiple counts of wire fraud, as well as unlawful monetary transactions and money laundering conspiracy.

An accomplice was previously sentenced to a year in prison for helping Minang open bank accounts used for the scheme.