President Trump’s DOJ just delivered the kind of prison sentence that gets fraudsters’ attention.
LaShonda Moore, 38, and Marlon Moore, 39, of Frisco, Texas, were each sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for what prosecutors called an illegal pyramid scheme that took more than $30 million from more than 10,000 victims.
The couple ran Blessings in No Time, known as BINT, during the COVID shutdown, when many Americans were already under pressure and desperate for a way to stay afloat.
According to prosecutors, victims were falsely promised 800% returns on a $1,400 investment and told they could get a refund if they were unsatisfied.
A Texas couple was sentenced yesterday to 40 years each in prison for running a fraudulent chain-referral pyramid scheme, following their convictions by a jury on conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering charges in January 2026.
“At the peak of the pandemic, LaShonda and… pic.twitter.com/b3jdusTymH
— Criminal Division (@DOJCrimDiv) June 10, 2026
The scheme was dressed up as community help, but the DOJ says it was a straight pyramid operation built on new money feeding earlier participants.
That is what made the timing so ugly. While normal people were trying to keep their families above water, prosecutors say the Moores were selling a fantasy payday.
The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs said:
A Texas couple was sentenced yesterday to 40 years each in prison for running a fraudulent chain-referral pyramid scheme, following their convictions by a jury on conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering charges in January 2026.
“At the peak of the pandemic, LaShonda and Marlon Moore launched an investment fraud scheme and cheated struggling Americans out of $30 million,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “This fraud scheme exploited people out of their hard-earned money at a time when they needed it most. Opportunistic fraudsters like the Moores belong in prison.”
“The Moores’ get rich quick scheme has earned them a well-deserved stay in federal prison,” said U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs for the Eastern District of Texas. “Playing games with other peoples’ money while promising unrealistic returns is stealing and will be prosecuted and punished.”
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, LaShonda Moore, 38, and Marlon Moore, 39, of Frisco, Texas, co-founded and ran “Blessings in No Time,” known as “BINT,” an illegal chain-referral pyramid scheme that targeted victims during the COVID-19 pandemic from June 2020 to June 2021.
Victims were falsely promised that they would earn 800% returns on each $1,400 investment and were guaranteed a refund if they were unsatisfied. The Moores falsely held out BINT as a way for people to help their own community by paying “blessings” of at least $1,400 to participants who had already joined.
The defendants’ pyramid scheme victimized more than 10,000 people across the country and inflicted more than $30 million in victim losses.
The investigation was handled by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Secret Service, and IRS Criminal Investigation.
That detail matters because this was fraud, not a failed investment club. A jury convicted them on conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering charges.
Forty years is a long time, but stealing from desperate people during a national crisis is not a small crime.
There is a reason prosecutors used words like exploited, stealing, and accountable. When fraudsters turn hard times into a payday, prison is exactly where the story should end.
