Ellis is an Army veteran who lived in Harker Heights, Texas, during the relevant time period. Cortese is an attorney who lived in Little River, Texas. According to the evidence presented at trial, Ellis and Cortese were part of an international fraudulent scheme that began in 2012 and continued into 2015. The government's evidence, which included testimony from cooperating members of the conspiracy and from numerous victims, showed that the conspiracy had fraudulently obtained millions of dollars from scores of victims. 

The conspiracy used different scams, but the heart of the operation involved duping victims into depositing counterfeit cashier's checks in their own bank accounts and then wiring the proceeds to shell companies and overseas bank accounts controlled by the conspirators before the counterfeiting was discovered. The conspirators used various methods to find their victims, such as emailing law firms or title companies to seek assistance in closing a real estate transaction or resolving a business dispute, sending out emails offering opportunities to work from home, and using online dating services to trick women into perceived relationships and gain access to their bank accounts. Sometimes the conspirators simply hacked a victim's email account and used the victim's personal information to conduct wire transfers. 

The operation was directed by Ikechukwu Amadi, a Canadian citizen and Nigerian national who used numerous aliases during the course of the conspiracy. Other members of the conspiracy included Akohomen Ighedoise, a Canadian citizen and Nigerian national; Muhammad Naji, a Jordanian national who lived in Tampa, Florida; Stacey Merritt, an Alaska resident; and Kenietta Johnson, who is Ellis's daughter and worked at a bank in Alexandria, Virginia. 

Viewed in the light most favorable to the government, the evidence presented at trial showed that Ellis was deeply involved in the operation of the scheme. Amadi sent her information about counterfeit checks to be created, and Ellis worked with another co-conspirator (believed to be in South Africa) and Johnson to create and print the counterfeit checks used by the conspiracy. She brought her sister and her daughter into the scheme, recruited others to open bank accounts to be used by the conspirators, and gave instructions to other co-conspirators about where funds should be directed. Millions of dollars of fraudulent proceeds were routed through the bank account of a corporation she controlled.

Cortese's role in the conspiracies was somewhat more limited. One of his important functions was to intervene when necessary to "unfreeze" accounts that had been locked by banks because of suspicious transactions. Cortese worked closely with Ellis, and funds from many of the scams Ellis was involved in flowed through his law firm trust account. On one occasion, Ellis arranged for Cortese to fly to Utah to pick up cash from a woman who had been ensnared through one of the online-romance scams. Along with Ellis, Cortese recruited his paralegal to open bank accounts to be used by the conspiracy, and fraudulent proceeds were wired from those accounts into Cortese's law firm trust account and given to him in cash.

The operative indictment named Amadi, Ighedoise, Ellis, Cortese, Merritt, and Johnson as defendants, but the trial proceeded against only Ellis, Cortese, and Johnson.1 Ellis represented herself at trial. Trial witnesses included Naji and Zoni Mullins, who was Cortese's paralegal, as well as numerous victims of the scams. On October 21, 2016, the jury convicted Ellis, Cortese, and Johnson of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money. (Johnson has not appealed her convictions.) 

In January 2017, Ellis -- while incarcerated on the charges in this case -- conspired with others to create and pass more counterfeit checks. She needed cash so she could hire a hitman to kill Naji's mother, Mullins, and Mullins's nine-yearold daughter in retaliation for their trial testimony. Based on that incident, Ellis was indicted on additional federal charges of using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder for hire and retaliating against a witness. Ellis was convicted of all charges arising from the murder-for-hire scheme several months before being sentenced in this case.2

Prior to the sentencing hearing in this case, the district court held an evidentiary hearing to determine the loss amount that would be attributed to the defendants. The court determined that Ellis and Cortese could reasonably have foreseen a total intended loss of $15,147,908.16 during the period they were involved with the conspiracy. After application of the loss-amount and other offense-level enhancements, Ellis's advisory sentencing range was 360-480 months. The district court found Ellis's conduct "incomprehensible," describing it as "evil and wicked, predatory." . . .

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Footnote 1: Merritt pleaded guilty shortly before trial and testified for the government. At the time of the trial, the government was in the process of seeking extradition of Amadi and Ighedoise from Canada.

Footnote 2: After the sentencing in this case, the district court in the murder-for-hire case sentenced Ellis to 65 years' imprisonment, with the sentence to run consecutive to the sentences in this case.