Washington Man Jailed 5 Years for $97 Million Crypto Laundering

A federal courtroom in Seattle sentenced Geoffrey Auyeung to 5 years in jail on Tuesday for conspiracy to commit cash laundering.

The 47-year-old Newcastle, Washington resident helped abroad fraudsters transfer sufferer funds from a pretend oil-and-gas escrow scheme. 

Inside the Crypto Laundering Operation

According to prosecutors, Auyeung created a minimum of 9 enterprise entities to obtain cash from traders. His co-schemers instructed victims they have been shopping for oil tank storage in Rotterdam or Houston, with earnings to be generated from renting the tanks.

Once deposits landed in accounts Auyeung managed, he shifted the cash offshore or transformed it into crypto, together with Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT), USDC (USDC), and Ethereum (ETH), by Gemini, BitStamp, and Coinbase.

Much of that crypto then flowed to Binance accounts managed by people in Nigeria and Russia. Victims obtained no updates on their investments, and the schemers merely went silent.

The press launch revealed that Auyeung opened a minimum of 81 financial institution accounts at 24 monetary establishments, in addition to 19 accounts throughout 8 crypto exchanges. Between June 2022 and July 2024, these accounts took in $97.1 million in third-party transfers. 

All the deposits have been flagged by the federal government as proceeds of fraud. US District Judge John C. Coughenour stated his sentence mirrored the scale of the conduct.

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“The scope and magnitude of this fraud. The defendant had each cause to know there was one thing mistaken right here… even taking cash after the indictment,” Coughenour stated.

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Commissions Kept Flowing After The Indictment

Auyeung earned greater than $4 million in commissions for hiding the proceeds. He demanded increased charges as he grew more aware of the fraud, courtroom information present.

His arrest in August 2024 didn’t cease him. Through December 2025, he collected one other $400,000 by routing deposits into financial institution accounts held in his spouse’s title.

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“Auyeung spent 16 months secretly nonetheless speaking together with his co-conspirators and persevering with to get his illicit charges by having the cash go to his spouse’s financial institution accounts. He confirmed utter disrespect for the legislation,” First Assistant US Attorney Floyd remarked.

Auyeung is forfeiting roughly $2.3 million seized from his accounts and residential, an Audi SQ8, and won’t contest civil forfeiture of $7.1 million in Bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies held in wallets. The authorities has requested $24.7 million in restitution, a determine now earlier than a Justice of the Peace choose.

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