Crypto Broker Gets 160 Months In US Drug-Money Laundering Case
TL;DR: A Colombian crypto dealer acquired a 160-month jail sentence in a US laundering and narcotics case, prosecutors introduced October 21. The account describes a scheme shifting legal proceeds by Tether and US shell corporations.
A New York federal decide has sentenced Leonardo de Jesus Zuluaga Duque to 160 months in jail in a case involving cryptocurrency, drug proceeds and transfers by the US banking system.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced the sentence on Wednesday. Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil additionally imposed 5 years of supervised launch and ordered forfeiture of $14,751,846, in response to prosecutors.
The workplace described Zuluaga Duque as a Colombia-based crypto dealer with a supervisory function within the community. It mentioned he and others helped launder roughly $14.5 million in Tether derived from drug trafficking between May and November 2023.
The Route Ran Through Both Crypto And Banks
Prosecutors’ account describes proceeds transformed into Tether, handed to an unlicensed money-transmission enterprise and exchanged for US {dollars}. US shell corporations then transferred funds to Colombian corporations earlier than the cash was transformed into pesos and distributed.
The token switch was one hyperlink in a series that additionally relied on corporations, forex conversion and banking entry. The proceeds finally reached recipients in native forex, prosecutors mentioned.
Monitoring a blockchain handle alone wouldn’t essentially clarify the industrial function of an related financial institution switch. Conversely, a financial institution document would possibly present the receiving firm with out revealing the sooner token motion. Reconstructing your complete route requires connecting these items.
The roughly $14.5 million laundering determine describes the Tether transactions attributed to the group. The separate forfeiture order units the quantity Zuluaga Duque should give up below the sentence; including these figures would overstate the proceeds described within the case.
The jail time period exceeds 13 years. Afterward, Zuluaga Duque faces the extra five-year interval of supervised launch introduced by prosecutors.