Melissa Sclafani: Where is she now? What was his crime? Updates
What happens when the insecurity of your financial situation drives you to despair? This is the story of a mother named Melissa Sclafani, who was once a bank teller in Gloucester, Massachusetts, but then became involved in running a global fake steroid scam. Melissa Sclafani is the subject of this story. The scam and the investigation process, in addition to Melissa’s current whereabouts, are discussed in detail in the “My True Crime Story” episode airing on VH1. The question remains, who exactly is this Melissa Sclafani? Let’s find out.
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What was Melissa Sclafani’s crime?
Melissa Sclafani, who lived at 19 Beacon Street in Gloucester, Massachusetts, was in her late twenties when she became a mother. She was struggling to make ends meet and suffered from postpartum depression. Her job as a cashier at the neighborhood bank was not enough to ensure her family’s financial well-being. When she first met Tyler Bauman from Shrewsbury and Philip Goodwin from Lynn, she was looking for a job that would give her extra income. The group of three, with the help of three other people who participated in the conspiracy, started a business that sold fake steroids in February 2016.
According to court records, their ringleader, Tyler, made injectable anabolic steroids from raw steroids imported from Hong Kong and China. Tyler then marketed these steroids in the United States under false pretences. Tyler marketed the liquid steroids under the guise of a fictitious subsidiary of Amgen, which is an American global biopharmaceutical company. He used the online alias “musclehead320”. On the other hand, Amgen does not produce or sell anabolic steroids of this type. Under the name “Onyx Pharmaceuticals”, Melissa and others involved promoted and advertised their products on various fitness blogs and social media platforms. The company even used a fictitious email address.
According to several accounts, in order to spread their counterfeit product across the country, the perpetrators tampered with the product’s labels, holograms, and brand. The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts emphasizes how they accepted payment for their products, stating, “customers paid for the steroids through money senders, such as Western Union and MoneyGram, and conspiracy members used false identifications and multiple remittance locations to retrieve proceeds from the steroids. [C]Customers paid for the steroids through money senders, such as Western Union and MoneyGram.
After that, profits from the scheme were laundered through a Beverly Hills tanning salon operated by Tyler and Philip. Melissa has been appointed to the position of Corporate Secretary of the Gloucester establishment known as Wicked Tan LLC, located on Dodge Street. She helped the other defendants obtain raw materials and supplies from another country to facilitate the production of the fake steroids. Additionally, she was involved in the process of laundering money through the tanning salon using the profits from the sale.
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Where is Melissa Sclafani today?
From February 2016 to April 12, 2017, when they were charged and detained for conspiracy to traffic steroids and launder money, Melissa Sclafani led the fraud for nearly a year, a period at during which it lasted from 2016 to 2017. Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Homeland Security Investigations Division are those conducting the investigation (HSI). Agents from the Food and Drug Administration’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the New York Field Office, and the United States Postal Inspection Service assisted investigators throughout the investigation.
The massive investigation which was carried out with the assistance of a large number of federal agencies resulted in the issuance of five federal search warrants, which “yielded 9 kilograms of raw powdered steroids, over 35,000 units units of finished steroids, lab production equipment, 14,000 fraudulent brand labels and boxes as well as over $500,000 in cash.In addition, a total of six federal arrest warrants have been issued against Melissa, Tyler and Philip, as well as Brian Petzke of Saugus, Robert Medeiros of Gardner and Kathryn Green of Shrewsbury, all of these people are from Massachusetts.
On July 14, 2017, Melissa pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston, Massachusetts. She was charged with “one count of conspiracy to distribute and distribute counterfeit steroids and one count of conspiracy to launder money”. Money laundering charges can result in a prison sentence of up to twenty years, a fine of up to half a million dollars or double the amount gained or lost as a result of the conspiracy, and three years of probation after release from prison. The conspiracy to create and distribute fake steroids carried a possible sentence of five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which is double the amount won or lost. following the conspiracy.
However, because Melissa entered a plea deal, her sentence was significantly reduced. The 30-year-old defendant was sentenced on April 26, 2018 to a term of one year and one day in prison as well as two years of probation. Since the year 2022, Melissa Sclafani has fulfilled all the conditions of her sentence. She is currently in her thirties and works at Citizens Bank as an assistant manager.
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