Viagra cash went through bogus sewing firm
A fraudster who used a sham embroidery firm to launder the £10 million profits of a counterfeit Viagra gang is facing jail.
Janice Sofoulakis, 64, took part in the scam with her daughter Kristina Sofoulakis, 28, Mark Bristow, 47, and ringleader Neil Gilbert, 44, for over eight years.
They used a series of ‘front’ companies claiming to sell jewellery, fishing tackle and cosmetics to accept the electronic payments and laundered the proceeds through more than 100 bank accounts both in the UK and offshore.
Profits from the supply of the unlicenced drugs totalled more than £10 million before gang members were arrested and jailed in 2015 following an investigation by the drugs regulatory body, MHRA.
Janice Sofoulakis admitted two charges of fraud and two counts of money laundering at the Old Bailey.
According to the charges she laundered cash for the gang after claiming she was owed payments for the ’embroidery of table cloths and bed linen and the sale of clothing’.
Judge Michael Topolski, QC, said: ‘You have pleaded guilty to counts of fraud and money laundering as part of a significant and high-value course of conduct between 2007-2012.
‘A number of other defendants have already been sentenced to terms of imprisonment.’
The judge released Sofoulakis on conditional bail until her sentencing on 1 February.
‘You are well aware of the sentences that were passed on others connected with and who were participating in thise serious enterprise,’ he added.
Mastermind Gilbert was jailed for six years in May 2015.
Bristow, who acted as the middle man between the northern and southern parts of the enterprise, was jailed alongside him for four years.
Kristina Sofoulakis was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison after earning £200,837.31 by acting as a a book keeper monitoring orders and payments.
Janice Sofoulakis, of Northwood Avenue, Brighton, has been ordered to give up her passport and cannot apply for or possess any international travel documents while she is on bail.
She is due to be sentenced at the Old Bailey on 1 February.
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