Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (b)
Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and Robert Fuller, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, today announced that JOHN VOLOSHIN, also known as “Josh Thomas,” 68, formerly of New Haven and Woodbridge, has been extradited to the U.S. from Brazil to face fraud, identity theft, and money laundering offenses.
As alleged in court documents and statements made in court, in May 2012, Voloshin was sentenced in Hartford federal court to 33 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release for operating multiple fraud schemes that caused losses of more than $1.5 million to individuals and lenders. He was released from prison in May 2014. In November 2014, he was sentenced to an additional nine months of imprisonment for violating the terms and conditions of his federal supervised release for repeatedly lying to his supervising probation officer by concocting a bogus job for a real estate concern in London. He was released from prison in June 2015. In the fall of 2015, Voloshin engaged in another fraud scheme by soliciting money from individuals and falsely representing that the money would be fully invested to generate very high returns. In November 2017, he was sentenced to 27 months of imprisonment for the offense and for violating his supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $275,000 in restitution, in addition to his restitution obligation from his 2012 conviction. He was released from prison in May 2018.
On September 23, 2020, a federal grand jury in New Haven returned an indictment charging Voloshin with seven counts of bank fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and two counts of money laundering. The indictment, which was unsealed today, alleges that between January and April 2019, Voloshin defrauded a company in Bloomfield for which he provided accounting and tax preparation services to individuals and companies. Voloshin stole blank checks for both the company’s business account and the company owner’s personal account, forged the owner’s name on the checks, and negotiated the checks for his own benefit. Voloshin also stole and negotiated checks and money orders that were written out as payment by third parties to the company. As part of the scheme, Voloshin incorporated an entity in Wyoming with a name very similar to that of the company, opened a bank account in the name of the sham company, deposited misappropriated checks into the account, and used the stolen funds for his own benefit.
Voloshin was arrested on July 14, 2021, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and has been in custody since that time. He appeared today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas O. Farrish in Hartford and pleaded not guilty to the new charges against him.
Bank fraud carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years on each count, aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory two-year term of imprisonment on each count, and money laundering carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years on each count. Voloshin also faces additional penalties if he is found to have violated the conditions of his supervised release from his 2017 conviction.
U.S. Attorney Avery stressed that an indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Charges are only allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
This matter is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. U.S. Attorney Avery thanked Interpol and Brazilian authorities for their assistance in apprehending this defendant, and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs for coordinating the extradition proceedings in this matter. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David T. Huang and Sean P. Mahard.