U.S. targets Lebanon-based drug smuggling network

The U.S. Treasury Department said on Wednesday it was targeting a Lebanon-based drug trafficking and money laundering network suspected of doing as much as $200 million a month in business.

The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said it was labeling Ayman Joumaa, as well as nine people and 19 entities connected with his organization, as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers.

The action means U.S. citizens are prohibited from any commercial or financial dealings with the people or entities and that any of their assets found in the United States can be seized.

The Treasury said Joumaa coordinated the transportation, distribution and sale of shipments of cocaine from South America, laundering the money in Europe and the Middle East.

It said the group operated in Lebanon, West Africa, Panama and Colombia and had laundered as much as $200 million per month through various channels.

The Treasury's action was taken under the so-called Kingpin Act that aims to disrupt foreign narcotics traffickers by preventing them from gaining access to the international financial system. (Reporting by Glenn Somerville; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

Source: Reuters

OFAC Targets Colombian Drug Traffickers Linked To Sinaloa Cartel Leader

The U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday it imposed Kingpin Act sanctions on four Colombian individuals and 12 companies tied to a Colombian national linked to the head of the Mexico-based Sinaloa drug cartel.


Announced by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, Colombian nationals Mauricio Barcenas Rivera, Omar Mejia Zuluaga and Ana Maria Uribe Cifuentes, and dual Uruguayan/Ecuadorian national Jesus Maria Castro all had their U.S. assets frozen. The companies are spread across Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and Uruguay.

The companies and individuals are all linked, according to the announcement (pdf), to Jorge Milton Cifuentes Villa, who was sanctioned by OFAC in February. Villa’s organization, OFAC said, is closely tied to Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin Guzman Loera, known as Chapo Guzman.

Both Guzman and Villa were indicted on drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges in Florida in November 2010, and Villa was separately indicted in New York in February 2011 on drug-trafficking charges, according to Treasury’s notice.

The full list of Wednesday’s designations is available here, and a chart diagramming Villa’s drug network is here (pdf).

Source: The Wall Street Journal by Samuel RUBENFELD

Money laundering in Colombia surpasses 8 billion dollars

Money laundering operations in Colombia involving funds from drug-trafficking amount to close to 8.7 billion dollars per year, authorities said Wednesday.

There were more than 42,000 suspicious operations from January 2006-December 2010, according to the Financial Information and Analysis Unit (UIAF) of the Finance Ministry.

A figure for the underground economy was calculated based on the behaviour of criminals on a global scale, said UIAF director Luis Edmundo Suarez.

Money laundering distorts the economy and pushes up inflation so that the whole country pays 'a tax created by criminals,' he said.

'This illegal business has professionals who work for them permanently, as they would for any investor, advising on whether they should invest in stock, in fuel, wherever we give them the chance,' Suarez explained.

Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine.

Source: Deutsche Press

David Murcia extradited to US to face money laundering charges

Former DMG director David Murcia, convicted of managing a Ponzi scheme that defrauded hundreds of thousands of Colombians, was surrendered to U.S. authorities in Bogota Tuesday to face charges of laundering drug money before a U.S. court.


Heavily armed policemen escorted the disgraced rags-to-riches businessman early Tuesday morning from the La Picota prison in Bogota to a special airbase where two U.S. airplanes were waiting to take him to New York.

Murcia received a 30-year prison sentence in December after a judge had found him guilty of money laundering and illicit enrichment.

His company, DMG, became one of Colombia's wealthiest enterprises as it convinced hundreds of thousands of mostly poor Colombians to invest their savings into prepaid cards that could later be exchanged for products worth many times more than the invested money.

The scheme collapsed in 2008 when the Government ordered the closure of the company and its activities, and arrested all the company's executives, resulting in great losses for clients of DMG. Most of the money that was "invested" in the company is still missing.

Source: Colombia Reports

Drug money laundering ring with ties to Colombia and Italy busted in Boston

By Globe Staff

A drug bust in East Boston four years ago started an undercover investigation that has led to the seizure of hundreds of millions of dollars in laundered drug profits, the seizure of large amounts of heroin and cocaine, and charges against alleged organized crime figures in Colombia and Italy, officials said this afternoon.

The multi-agency and multi-government investigation spanned four years, and was built on the undercover work of an unidentified Massachusetts State Police trooper who traveled the world posing as a part the drug rings who shuttled money and drugs between the US, South America and Europe.

“This investigation not only been a lengthy one, but it’s been extremely complex,’’ US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said today of the US Drug Enforcement Administration-led investigation that was dubbed “Operation Fire and Ice.’’

She said some 20 people were arrested today in Massachusetts and in Colombia who will now be tried in a Boston courthouse for allegedly laundering drug money through the region. Officials estimated they seized some $200 million in cash, and more than 1,100 kilograms of cocaine and 46 kilograms of cocaine around the world.

Signaling the significance of the investigation to law enforcement in other countries, Ortiz was joined at an afternoon press conference at the Moakley courthouse by Brigadier General Cesar Augusto Pinzon Arana, commander of an elite anti-drug unit in Colombia, and Detective Vittorio Rizzi, commander of a special investigation unit for the Italian National Police in Rome.

With the help of a Spanish interpreter, Arana said the investigation targeted the remnants of the notorious Medellin drug cartel which now operates under the name of “La Oficina de Envigado” in Colombia.

Those arrested in Colombia will face trial in the US, officials said.

Three people with ties to Massachusetts were also arrested today. They were identified as Julissa Perez, of Malden; Henderson Martinez, who is also known as “Juan,” of Boston; and Roberto Torres-Colon, also known as “Chappa,” believed to be of Lawrence.

Authorities seized several bank accounts allegedly controlled by the Massachusetts residents and seized more than $2 million in cash. They face drug trafficking and money laundering charges here.

Source: BOSTON

Montreal men face money-laundering charges

Three Montreal-area men appeared in court in New York for the first time yesterday to face charges they helped launder Colombian drug money, in a case the United States government calls a landmark investigation.

The three - Juan Carlos Ellis, 45, of Ste. Julie, and Gerardo Palma and Giovanni Di Rienzo, both of Montreal - arrived in New York on Tuesday, weeks after the Quebec Court of Appeal rejected their challenge of U.S. extradition requests filed in 2004.

The men were arrested by the RCMP on May 3, 2004, after they and 31 other individuals and companies were named in a U.S. District Court indictment alleging all were part of a complex scheme based in Bogota to launder money that Colombian drug traffickers were making in Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere.

Operation White Dollar, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigation into the scheme, uncovered more than $100 million U.S. in drug money that had been converted into Colombian pesos for traffickers.

Currency brokers were used to sell pesos to companies in Colombia; in exchange, the brokers received drug money in the U.S. and Canada at a favourable rate. The brokers would deposit the dirty money in various international banking systems. They sold the U.S. dollars to Colombian firms looking to avoid taxes, import duties and transaction fees.

According to the U.S. State Department, a "prominent Colombian industrialist" agreed to forfeit $20 million after the investigation found he had bought pesos through the exchange for years.

Ellis and the two others are alleged to have taken more than

$2 million in 2002 to undercover agents posing as intermediaries for a Colombian man who arranged to exchange dirty U.S. and Canadian dollars into pesos.

During the spring of 2002, an undercover agent based in New York was asked to organize the collection of $500,000 in Montreal for German Moreno-Zuluaga, a Colombian man charged in Operation White Dollar. The agent was given a pager number and the code name El Toussou.

The information was given to an RCMP undercover agent in Montreal who set up a meeting with a man, alleged to have been Ellis. The undercover RCMP agent was handed $500,000 after a second meeting in May 2002.

Using similar methods, undercover RCMP agents were sent to pick up money on three other occasions in Montreal restaurants and hotel parking lots between August 2002 and February 2004.

Palma is alleged to have helped Ellis with some of the cash deliveries. Di Rienzo is alleged to have handed over more than $400,000 in August 2002 and to have told an undercover agent he had much more money in Toronto to deal with.

The RCMP deposited the money in a Canadian bank account and it was transferred to a secret DEA account in New York so investigators could trace the funds back to Colombia.

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=d4068fb8-4701-444b-a408-1e7e686c1730

Islamic Charity Charged with Terrorist Financing; Former U.S. Congressman Indicted

KANSAS CITY -- A federal grand jury in the Western District of Missouri has returned a superseding indictment that charges the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA) and several of its former officers with eight new counts of engaging in prohibited financial transactions for the benefit of U.S.-designated terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The indictment also charges former U.S. Congressman Mark Deli Siljander with money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the case.

The 42-count superseding indictment returned today was announced by Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; John F. Wood, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri; Joseph Billy, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division; and Monte C. Strait, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Kansas City Field Office.

“This superseding indictment paints a troubling picture of an American charity organization that engaged in transactions for the benefit of terrorists and conspired with a former United States Congressman to convert stolen federal funds into payment for his advocacy on behalf of the charity,” said Assistant Attorney General Wainstein.

“An organization right here in the American heartland allegedly sent funds to Pakistan for the benefit of a specially designated global terrorist with ties to al-Qaeda and the Taliban,” said U.S. Attorney Wood. “By bringing this case in the middle of America, we seek to make it harder for terrorists to do business halfway around the globe. The indictment also alleges that a former congressman engaged in money laundering and obstruction of a federal investigation in an effort to disguise IARA’s misuse of taxpayer money that the government had provided for humanitarian purposes.”

IARA, the Islamic charitable organization named in today’s indictment, was headquartered in Columbia, Mo., and was formerly known as the Islamic African Relief Agency-USA. IARA was officially formed in 1985 and closed in October 2004, when it was identified by the U.S. Treasury Department as a specially designated global terrorist organization. Mubarak Hamed, 51, of Columbia, Mo., a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sudan, served as IARA’s former executive director and is named as a defendant in the indictment.

Also charged in today’s superseding indictment is Mark Deli Siljander, 57, a former U.S. Congressman from Michigan (1981-87) who serves as the owner/director of Global Strategies, Inc., a planning, marketing and public relations company located in the Washington, D.C. area.

Other defendants named in the indictment are Ali Mohamed Bagegni, 53, formerly of Columbia, Mo, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Libya and a former member of IARA’s board of directors; Ahmad Mustafa, 55, of Columbia, a citizen of Iraq, and a former fund-raiser for IARA; Khalid Al-Sudanee, 56, a citizen and resident of Jordan, and the regional director of the Middle East office of the Islamic African Relief Agency (also known as the Islamic Relief Agency, or ISRA); and Abdel Azim El-Siddig, 51, of Palos Heights, Ill., a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Sudan, and formerly vice president for international operations for IARA.

On March 6, 2007, IARA, along with five officers, employees and associates were charged in a 33-count indictment for illegally transferring funds to Iraq in violation of federal sanctions. They were also charged with stealing government funds, with misusing IARA’s charitable status to raise funds for an unlawful purpose, and with attempting to avoid government detection of their illegal activities by, among other things, falsely denying in a nationally-televised interview that a procurement agent of Osama bin Laden had been an employee of IARA. These charges are included in the superseding indictment returned today.

New Terrorism-Related Charges Against IARA

Today’s superseding indictment adds to the original charges by alleging that IARA and its former executive director, Mubarak Hamed, engaged in prohibited financial transactions for the benefit of Specially Designated Global Terrorist, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan mujahideen leader and founder of the Hezb-e-Islami-Gulbuddin (HIG), who has participated in and supported terrorist acts by al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Hekmatyar has vowed to engage in a holy war against the United States and international troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. government designated Hekmatyar as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on Feb. 19, 2003, thereby blocking all property and interests in property of Hekmatyar.

According to Counts Thirty-Four through Forty-One of the new indictment, IARA and Hamed knowingly and willfully engaged in financial transactions for the benefit of Hekmatyar’s organization by sending approximately $130,000 in 2003 and 2004 in numerous transactions to Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA) bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, purportedly for an orphanage housed in buildings owned and controlled by Hekmatyar.

“Sending money to benefit designated terrorists jeopardizes both U.S. national security and the security of nations around the world,” said Assistant Director Joseph Billy, Jr., FBI Counterterrorism Division. “The FBI will continue to work diligently with our partners in the law enforcement and intelligence community to pursue suspected terrorists and their supporters, whether in the United States or overseas.”

It is important to note that the indictment does not charge any of the defendants with material support of terrorism, nor does it allege that they knowingly financed acts of terror. Instead, the indictment alleges that some of the defendants engaged in financial transactions that benefited property controlled by a designated terrorist, in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

New Charges Against Former Congressman

Today’s superseding indictment also names Mark Deli Siljander as a defendant on counts of money laundering, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. According to the indictment, Siljander was hired in March 2004 by defendants IARA, Hamed, and Bagegni to advocate for the removal of IARA from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of non-profit organizations suspected of being involved in supporting international terrorism.

The Senate Finance Committee placed IARA on this list of charities and published the list on Jan. 14, 2004. Siljander was to advocate for IARA’s removal from the list and reinstatement as an approved government contractor by gathering information and meeting with individuals and agencies of the U.S. government.

As compensation for the services that Siljander agreed to perform, IARA transferred roughly $50,000 in stolen federal funds to accounts that were controlled by Siljander at the National Heritage Foundation and the International Foundation. According to the indictment, the funds used to compensate Siljander for his services had previously been stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) by IARA, Hamed and Bagegni. The International Foundation and the National Heritage Foundation, which is not related to the Heritage Foundation, are not charged with any wrongdoing in this case.

IARA, Hamed and Bagegni had previously entered into a series of agreements with USAID for relief projects in Mali, Africa. When USAID terminated those agreements in December 1999, the amount of money involved totaled approximately $2 million. IARA had allegedly failed to fully fund the matching contributions required to receive USAID funds. After the termination of these agreements, the indictment alleges, IARA, Hamed and Bagegni, without authorization, retained approximately $84,922 of USAID money and failed to return the funds to USAID as called for by the agreements.

According to Count Twenty-Eight of the indictment, Siljander and defendants IARA, Hamed, Bagegni and El-Siddig conspired to engage in money laundering by transferring stolen USAID funds, knowing that the transfers were designed to conceal the nature, source and ownership of the proceeds. Counts Twenty-Nine through Thirty-One of the indictment charge Siljander along with IARA, Hamed, Bagegni and El-Siddig with engaging in money laundering by transferring stolen USAID funds, knowing that the transfers were designed to conceal the nature, source and ownership of the proceeds.

Obstruction of Justice

Count Thirty-Two of the indictment alleges that Siljander obstructed the due administration of justice in the grand jury investigation in the Western District of Missouri by making false statements to FBI agents in December 2005 and to FBI agents and federal prosecutors in April 2007.

According to the indictment, Siljander told federal officials that he had not been hired to do any lobbying or advocacy work for IARA and that the money or checks he received from IARA were charitable “donations” intended to assist him in writing a book about bridging the gap between Islam and Christianity. When he made these statements, he then well knew and believed that each statement was false, the indictment alleges.

The public is cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, IRS-Criminal Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. AID-Office of Inspector General.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony P. Gonzalez from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri, in conjunction with Trial Attorneys Corey J. Smith, National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and Steven M. Mohlhenrich, Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

http://www.thesop.org/article.php?id=9137

International Arms Dealer Extradited on Terrorism Offenses

U.S. Department of Justice

**Verbatim

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, June 13, 2008
WWW.USDOJ.GOV

NEW YORK- Michael J. Garcia, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Michele M. Leonhart, the Acting Administrator of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), announced that international arms dealer Monzer Al Kassar, a/k/a Abu Munawar, a/k/a El Taous, arrived in New York today after being extradited from Spain on federal terrorism charges. Al Kassar was extradited to New York for his participation in a conspiracy to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (the FARC) -- a designated foreign terrorist organization -- to be used to kill Americans in Colombia. Al Kassar’s co-defendants, Tareq Mousa Al Ghazi and Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, were both previously extradited to New York from Romania to face the same terrorism charges. According to the superseding Indictment filed in Manhattan federal court:

Since the early 1970s, Al Kassar has been a source of weapons and military equipment for armed factions engaged in violent conflicts around the world. Some of these factions have included known terrorist organizations, such as the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF), the goals of which included attacking United States interests and United States nationals.

To carry out his weapons-trafficking business, Al Kassar developed an international network of criminal associates, including co-defendants Al Ghazi and Moreno Godoy, as well as front companies and bank accounts in various countries, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania. Additionally, Al Kassar has engaged in money-laundering transactions in bank accounts throughout the world to disguise the illicit nature of his criminal proceeds.

Between February 2006 and May 2007, Al Kassar agreed to sell to the FARC millions of dollars worth of weapons, including thousands of machine guns, millions of rounds of ammunition, rocket-propelled grenade launchers (RPGs), and surface-to-air missile systems (SAMs). During a series of recorded telephone calls, e-mails, and in-person meetings, Al Kassar agreed to sell the weapons to two confidential sources working with the DEA (the CSs), who represented that they were acquiring these weapons for the FARC, with the specific understanding that the weapons were to be used to attack United States helicopters in Colombia.

During their consensually-recorded meetings, Al Kassar provided the CSs with, among other things: (1) a schematic of the vessel to be used to transport the weapons; (2) specifications for the SAMs he agreed to sell to the FARC; and (3) bank accounts in Spain and Lebanon that were ultimately used to receive and conceal more than $400,000 sent from DEA undercover accounts that the CSs represented were FARC drug proceeds for the weapons deal. During his meetings with the CSs, Al Kassar reviewed Nicaraguan end-user certificates that he accepted despite knowing that the arms were destined for the FARC in Colombia. Al Kassar also promised to provide the FARC with ton-quantities of C-4 explosives, as well as expert trainers from Lebanon to teach the FARC how to effectively use C-4 and improvised explosive devices (commonly referred to as IEDs). In addition, Al Kassar offered to send a thousand men to fight with the FARC against United States military officers in Colombia.

The Indictment charges Al Kassar with four separate terrorism offenses:

Count One: Conspiracy to kill United States nationals, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2332(b);

Count Two: Conspiracy to kill United States officers or employees, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1114 and 1117;

Count Three: Conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2332g; and

Count Four: Conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, in violation of Title 18,

United States Code, Section 2339B.

In addition, Al Kassar is charged in Count Five with money laundering, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1956.

The superseding Indictment seeks the forfeiture of an estate located in Marbella, Spain, and all funds contained in three separate bank accounts. The forfeitures represent the alleged proceeds obtained from the charged offenses.

Al Kassar is expected to appear later this afternoon in Magistrate court in Manhattan federal court.

If convicted of Counts One through Three, Al Kassar faces a maximum sentence of any term of years or life imprisonment, as well as a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years’ imprisonment on Count Three. As part of the extradition process, however, the United States has provided assurances to the government of Spain that it will not seek a life sentence for Al Kassar, but instead will ask for a prison term of years. If convicted of Count Four, Al Kassar faces a maximum sentence of 15 years' imprisonment. Finally, if convicted of Count Five, Al Kassar faces a maximum sentence of 20 years' imprisonment.

The international law enforcement operation that culminated with today’s extradition was the result of cooperation between the DEA, the Spanish National Police, and the Romanian Border Police.

Mr. Garcia praised the investigative efforts of the DEA, the Spanish National Police, and the Romanian Border Police. Mr. Garcia also thanked the United States Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs and the U.S. State Department.

"Monzer Al Kassar intended to provide millions of dollars worth of lethal weapons to a foreign terrorist organization to be used to kill Americans," said U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia. "As a result of extraordinary cooperation with our international law enforcement partners, Al Kassar will now face justice for his crimes in a United States courtroom."

"The arrest, extradition and pending criminal prosecution of Monzer Al Kassar before a U.S. Court of justice are a testament to DEA's global alliances and unique investigative skills," said DEA Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart. "Al Kassar's days of arming and funding global terrorists are over. Spanish authorities are to be commended for their diligence and perseverance to ensure Al Kassar's extradition to the United States."

Assistant United States Attorneys Boyd M. Johnson III, Leslie C. Brown, and Brendan R. McGuire are in charge of the prosecutions.

The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

US Prosecutors Change Course on Money Laundering Charges Against Prominent Attorney

John Pacenti
Daily Business Review
August 8, 2008

In a surprising turnabout, federal prosecutors who indicted prominent Miami attorney Ben Kuehne on money laundering charges now say they plan to offer no trial evidence directly linking him to drug profits.

Instead, the government will offer testimony to show that millions of dollars used to pay Colombian druglord Fabio Ochoa's high-powered defense team was tainted by the family's legendary cocaine smuggling network.

"It's a remarkable document," former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey, who is not involved in the case, said Thursday. "It's an astonishing acknowledgement of what appears to be a roadmap to a negligence case rather than intentional criminality."

Kuehne faces seven indictments charging him with money laundering concealment and conspiracy for vetting the money paid to celebrity Miami attorney Roy Black to defend Ochoa. Prosecutors offered a shrunken view of the case in court filings July 31 as they presented a bill of particulars to support the indictment, which had been winnowed once before.

Testimony will show Ochoa family cattle and horse concerns used for $5.1 million in defense fees were tainted by Ochoa's $300 million drug operation, wrote the lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Feitel in Washington. He did not return a call for comment by deadline.

Kuehne's defense attorneys, John W. Nields of the Howrey law firm in Washington, and Jane Moscowitz of Moscowitz & Moscowitz in Miami, had no comment on the new documents.

Kuehne, who was paid nearly $200,000 by Black, concluded the money was clear of any criminal taint.

Prosecutors say they plan to offer evidence from a New York money laundering sting operation and the black market peso exchange system, which converts U.S. drug profits to Colombian pesos. This section of the government's court filing comes with no mention of Kuehne.

"With respect to the remaining wire transactions, the government represents that it does not currently intend to introduce evidence directly tracing narcotic sales to specific assets that resulted in wire transfers to defendant Kuehne's attorney trust account," the bill of particulars said.

Exhibits released with the bill of particulars list alleged false statements Kuehne made to Black in four opinion letters on the state of the Ochoa money. Kuehne, in the opinion letters, maintained the Ochoa cattle and livestock were separate from drug activities of Ochoa and his brothers. Kuehne concluded Ochoa properties, a cattle ranch, a horse farm and a chain of restaurants known as Las Margaritas were independent from drug trafficking and existed well before Ochoa and his brothers became involved in the Medellin drug cartel."The history of the Ochoa family in Colombia is a storied one in which the Ochoas have earned a position of respect and prominence and a reputation for honesty and integrity," Kuehne wrote.

He said Ochoa's father was well-regarded for raising Paso Fino horses, achieving sales of $500,000 to $1 million and stud fees up to $10,000 each.

"Witness testimony will also establish that the Ochoa family used phony sales of Paso Fino horses to launder drug proceeds to the United States," according to the bill of particulars.

Kuehne was charged in May in a third superseding indictment along with Colombian attorney Oscar Saldarriaga Ochoa and Colombian accountant Gloria Florez Velez.

Government filings list 16 alleged co-conspirators, including money broker Hernando Saravia and Ochoa relatives.

Prosecutors say they intend to show how pesos were turned into dollars by a money broker using $1.8 million cash from undercover drug stings.

Saravia appears to have started working for the government in 2002 after he was caught trying to move $400,000 in drug profits from New York to Colombia, according to court documents. Kuehne depicted Saravia in the letters as a well-established Bogota flower exporter and jeweler and said Velez used Saravia to convert Ochoa's pesos to dollars for Black.

"Ms. Florez Velez personally confirmed that Colombia bank officials have refused to authorize wire transfers to the United States on behalf of or for the benefit of Fabio Ochoa Vasquez, notwithstanding compelling proof of the legitimacy of the funds," Kuehne wrote.

Kuehne, a respected lawyer in South Florida, represented Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 presidential recount and handled other high-profile civil rights and election cases.

The case against him has been criticized by criminal defense attorneys as the latest government effort to scare lawyers away from defending such clients as Ochoa. An obstruction of justice charge against Kuehne was dismissed after protests from the criminal defense bar. His attorneys point to a 1988 exception in the federal anti-money laundering statutes that exempts attorneys from criminal liability for accepting defense fees.

Coffey said the government must do more than just show Kuehne may have been negligent in the difficult task of sorting out the good, the bad and the ugly in the Ochoa family fortune. To gain a conviction, Coffey said prosecutors must prove Kuehne intended to convert illegal drug profits on the black market peso exchange.

The government has no audiotapes that would bolster its case against Kuehne, according to a source close to the investigation.

"Unless they got tapes or some kind of red-hot smoking gun, this case may not get past a dismissal motion," said Coffey, a name partner with Coffey Burlington in Miami.

He said a good example of giving a negligent but not criminal opinion was former Secretary of State Colin Powell's testimony to the United Nations that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

"You can be wrong giving an opinion, even tragically wrong," Coffey said. The attorney said it is ironic that the clearest traceable illegal funds are the government's own money from the drug stings. He said it's not illegal to be fooled by your own government.

"The government is going to be talking out of both sides of its mouth because it was doing everything it could to create this scam," Coffey said.

Source: Law.Com

Colombia Money Laundering Grows

Colombian criminals have laundered the equivalent to $4.3 billion in 2008, reported the Treasury Department.

According to the study conducted by the Department of Financial Analysis, over 400 reports of illegal activity were filed until October 2008, two times the amount for 2007.

Director of the Financial Analysis Department Mario Aranguren said that 12,562 people and 1,302 companies are involved in the illegal activities revealed in reports of banks, notaries and other premises controlled by the Financial Administrative Division.

Many of those are bogus companies that were created to launder money coming from drug trafficking and other illegal activities.

Aranguren said that 229 cases were reported in 2007, involving 24,030 people and 542 companies in operations for a total 2.96 trillion Colombian pesos, equivalent to some 1.5 billion Colombian pesos at the current exchange rate.

Source: PRE-LA

Colombian among 2 dozen in drug-money laundering ring sentenced in US court

A Colombian has been sentenced to almost 12 years in prison for his role in a ring that laundered large amounts of money from sales of illegal drugs sent to the United States by Colombian and Mexican traffickers.

Federal officials said Tuesday that 57-year-old Heriberto Torres-Romero of Bogota and 23 others - mostly from New York or Colombia - pleaded guilty to taking part in a system called the "black market peso exchange."

They said that after his prison sentence, Torres-Romero will be deported to Colombia.

The U.S. attorney's office said that another defendant, 36-year-old Edgar Baez, is scheduled to plead guilty later this month in New York, and five defendants remain fugitives.

During a four-year investigation in Atlanta, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, Puerto Rico and Mexico, U.S. agents seized about $9 million, 2 kilograms of heroin and 26 kilograms of cocaine.

Colombian drug baron gets 30 years in US prison

By CURT ANDERSON

A Colombian who was one of the top financial managers and supervised money-laundering for a cocaine cartel accused of smuggling $10 billion in drugs into the U.S. was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in federal prison.

Eugenio Montoya Sanchez, 39, pleaded guilty in January to drug trafficking and obstruction of justice charges, the latter involving his role in setting up the torture, killing and dismemberment a cartel associate suspected of cooperating with authorities. In a brief statement, Montoya expressed remorse.

"There is no justification for what I did," Montoya said through a Spanish interpreter.

Montoya is the brother of the purported mastermind of Colombia's North Valley cartel. Diego Montoya Sanchez is also in U.S. custody in Miami and has pleaded not guilty to a 12-count federal indictment charging cocaine trafficking, money laundering, witness retaliation and obstruction of justice. Another brother, Juan Carlos Montoya Sanchez, is serving a 22-year prison sentence in the U.S. his role in the drug cartel.

The Montoyas are accused of overseeing a cocaine empire that smuggled cocaine into the U.S. beginning in the 1990s. U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga set a July 10 hearing to consider whether Montoya can pay restitution to the U.S. government for his drug activities.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Davis said most of Montoya's assets have been seized by the Colombian government and that the additional time is needed to determine how much he could pay.

Eugenio Montoya, who has been cooperating with U.S. authorities, previously admitted his role as a top financial manager of the cartel. Among his duties was handling a series of so-called "stash houses" in Colombia where about $20 million in U.S. currency was hidden. Montoya also made numerous real estate investments and oversaw a computer equipment business.

The obstruction charge stems from the August 2003 killing of Jhon Jairo Garcia Giraldo, known as "Dos Mil," whose main job was handling pagers and cell phones for the Montoya organization. According to court documents, Garcia was tortured at a farm outside Cali, Colombia, on orders from Diego Montoya to find out if he had talked with U.S. officials during a visit to South Florida.

"Methods used included hitting Garcia Giraldo with baseball bats in the shins and other parts of the body, holding his head under water, and asphyxiating him with a plastic bag over his head," according to a statement of facts signed by Eugenio Montoya.

Although Garcia denied being an informant, he was beaten to death and dismembered, his body parts thrown in a river.

Source: AP

The Banking Industry´s Dirty Little Secret: Money Laundering For The Drug Cartels

Dave Gibson

The United Nation´s Office on Drugs and Crime Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa recently told the Austrian magazine Profil that drug money has been the only thing that has kept many major banks in business.

Costa said: "In many instances, drug money is currently the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system´s main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor."

Costa went on to say that UNODC has discovered that "interbank loans were funded by money that originated from drug trade and other illegal activities." Incredibly, he said there were "signs that some banks were rescued in that way."

In the last few years, large banks have been getting into the remittance industry, which sends over $50 billion annually from the U.S. to Latin America. While much of the money is sent from laborers in this country back home to their families, drug traffickers heavily use remittances as a way to send their profits south of the border.

The banks charge very high fees for the service.

In 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Justice Department has opened an investigation into money transfers conducted by Wachovia bank. It is alleged that Wachovia transferred funds from drug deals in the United States to Mexican and Columbian money-exchange houses, or casas de cambio.

There are countless casas de cambio just inside the Mexican border.

The following is a portion of the report which appeared in the Wall Street Journal on April 26, 2008:

"Wachovia built up its ties to casas de cambio as a way to tap the Hispanic market, which doesn´t always bank through traditional Main Street outlets. Wachovia served as a larger partner, holding the foreign-exchange houses´ deposits and providing back-office services. In 2005, it introduced the Dinero Directo card to facilitate cross-border remittances."

"The bank pushed into the business despite concerns from U.S. law enforcement that such firms were sometimes used to launder drug money. Wachovia declined to discuss why it pursued this business despite the warnings."

"Internal emails and documents filed in federal courts in Miami, Chicago and New York describe former ties between Wachovia and money-changing firms. In a case in U.S. court in Miami, federal agents seized more than $11 million in 23 Wachovia accounts belonging to Casa de Cambio Puebla…Mexican police raided Puebla offices last fall, alleging relationships with a major drug cartel."

However, Wachovia is only one of many U.S. banks to come under investigation for laundering drug cartel profits.

The following is a short list of banks which have resolved cases of money laundering, to avoid federal prosecution (Source: U.S. Justice Dept.):

2008, Sigue Corp. was alleged to be part of $24.7 million in suspicious funds in processed remittances. They forfeited $15 million and avoided prosecution.

2007, Union Bank of California was discovered to be laundering drug cartel profits through casas de cambio. The bank forfeited $21.6 million and avoided prosecution.

2007, American Express International Bank failed to report $55 million passing through the accounts of known drug traffickers. They paid $65 million in fines and avoided prosecution.

2006, Bank Atlantic paid a $10 million fine to avoid prosecution, when an undercover investigation discovered that drug profits were being laundered through one of their branch locations.

As part of their deferred prosecution, the banks agreed to reform their practices as well as submit to federal oversight.

Of course, this practice involves very large banks and very large amounts of money.

After an investigation of Union Bank of California, the Justice Department claimed that the bank failed "to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program."

One case involved two drug traffickers using accounts from Ribadeo Casa de Cambio in order to transfer millions of dollars in drug proceeds. Federal prosecutors discovered $295 million in transfers from several Union Bank accounts back to their account, with only $29 million ever being repaid.

Prosecutors faulted Union Bank not only for failing to corroborate the legitimacy of the transfers, but prosecutors allege, the bank ignored the large volumes of traveler's checks with sequential numbers, large cash deposits and wire transfers strategically structured below federal reporting limits.

While ignorance may be bliss, it would be difficult for the banks to declare it as a defense. Since the mid-1990s, U.S. bank regulators and drug enforcement investigators have been warning U.S. banks that Mexican casas de cambio pose a great money-laundering risk.

Recently, both U.S. and Mexican authorities have taken a much tougher approach in policing the operations of the foreign-exchange firms. The Mexican Attorney General's office says some of the casas de cambio are part of an elaborate system which funnels drug money through U.S. banks, on to European banks and then back to the U.S. and Latin America.

This new and vigorous effort is undoubtedly in response to not only the extreme violence taking place in Mexico, as that nation´s powerful drug cartels threaten to topple the government, but to the growing presence the cartels now have in the U.S. as well.

Of course, it is not only the drug traffickers and low-level operatives who transfer drug profits through U.S. banks.

In 1998, the brother of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas, Raul Salinas was caught transferring hundreds of millions of dollars out of Mexico to Citibank in New York. Citibank was then sending the money to banks in Switzerland.

The Salinas family is believed by both U.S. and Mexican law enforcement to have received nearly a billion dollars from Mexican and Columbian drug cartels. Raul Salinas was released from prison in 2005, after serving ten years for the murder of his brother-in-law.

Upon consideration of the fact that many U.S. banks have engaged in laundering drug profits for the powerful and violent cartels, the $700 billion bank bailout engineered by Bush administration Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson seems even more questionable.

The fact that none of that bailout money went to help homeowners facing foreclosure, combined with the Treasury´s refusal to specifically tell Congress where $200 billion of it went makes you wonder if the relationship between the banks and the drug cartels goes far beyond what we are being told by the Justice Department.

Source: American Chronicle

U.S. says Iran increasing activity in Latin America

Iran is increasing its activity in Latin America and the Caribbean, including actions aimed at supporting the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a top U.S. military commander said on Tuesday.

Navy Admiral James Stavridis, who oversees U.S. military interests in the region as head of U.S. Southern Command, also said Hezbollah was linked to drug-trafficking in Colombia.

"We have seen... an increase in a wide level of activity by the Iranian government in this region," Stavridis told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"That is a concern principally because of the connections between the government of Iran, which is a state sponsor of terrorism, and Hezbollah," he said.

The U.S. State Department lists the Lebanese-based political and military movement as a terrorist organization.

Stavridis said Hezbollah activities in South America have been concentrated particularly in the border region between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, but also in Colombia.

"We have been seeing in Colombia a direct connection between Hezbollah activity and narco-trafficking activity," the commander added, without providing specifics.

Colombia said last October that it had smashed a drug and money-laundering ring suspected of shipping funds to Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has denied links to drugs and money-laundering and described allegations as part of a propaganda campaign aimed at harming its image.

President Barack Obama's administration has sought to move toward dialogue with Tehran, despite sharp differences on several topics including Iran's nuclear program. Iran says it only wants to generate power while the Washington and its allies accuse Tehran of trying to build a nuclear bomb.

Stavridis is the latest U.S. defense official to express concerns about Iranian influence in Latin America, where the left-wing governments in Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Bolivia have all become allies of Iran in recent years.

In January, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the same Senate panel he was more worried about Iranian "meddling" than he was about Russia's activities in Latin America.

(Reporting by David Morgan, editing by Alan Elsner)

Source: Reuters

Soccer: Officials 'laundered drug money'

Eleven former officials of Colombian football club Independiente Medellin were charged on Tuesday with using it to launder drug money.

Among those charged were Rodrigo Tamayo, club president in 1998-2000 and 2004, Tamayo's wife, Dolly Cardenas, and two other former presidents, Mario de J. Valderrama and Luis Fernando Jimenez. Conviction carries a prison term of six to 15 years.

Prosecutor Cesar Velez, using estimates from the club's former auditor Juan Bautista Avalos Salgar, estimated Tamayo laundered $4.6 million during his terms as president.

Avalos Salgar said one way of laundering money would be to sell a player for, say US$100, but enter the transaction on the books as $1,000. This means the extra $900 entered on the books was money gained allegedly through drug trafficking.

Source: NZ Herald

Venezuela deports man in money-laundering case

A Colombian man with links to a pyramid scheme that bilked Colombians out of hundreds of millions of dollars was deported by Venezuela on Thursday to the United States, where he is wanted on money-laundering charges.

Venezuelan authorities took Luis Cediel to Caracas' main airport for the flight to the U.S. Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami said Cediel would be handed over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The Colombian was indicted by U.S. authorities in New York earlier this year along with three co-defendents, accused of coordinating the collection of millions of dollars in drug proceeds in Mexico City beginning in February 2008.

The indictment unsealed in March says Cediel worked primarily out of Mexico for DMG Group Holdings SA, a business that promised fantastic interest rates but collapsed last November, prompting hundreds of angry investors to storm the company's office in Colombia. Authorities arrested DMG's principals and shuttered the company.

Cediel is charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and if convicted could face up to 20 years in prison.

His defense attorney, Lawrence M. Herrmann, said by phone from New York that he would like to speak with his client before commenting on the case.

Cediel was captured by the Venezuelan National Guard last week in the northwestern state of Falcon.

He was an associate of David Murcia, the man who built DMG and who is imprisoned in Colombia. Murcia also has been indicted in the U.S. on charges of conspiracy to launder money, including at least $2.2 million wired to a Merrill Lynch account allegedly set up on his behalf.

Colombian police Col. Jaime Vega said last week that funds totaling $2.2 million have been frozen in the U.S., and that $11 million in properties have also been frozen in the case.

Vega said authorities believe Cediel was involved in receiving dollars in cash, then providing Colombian currency, and then moving the funds to Mexico and the United States.

U.S. and Colombian authorities say Cediel's wife, Margarita Pabon, who is also imprisoned in Colombia, was legal adviser to DMG and was on the board of several of its companies.

Source: AP

US: Police Charge 27 With Laundering Drug Money

Twenty-seven owners and employees of wire transfer stores have been charged with laundering approximately $2 million in drug money to Colombia.

The arrests and the closures of 10 of the 24 stores in Queens, on Long Island and in Westchester County are part of Operation Pinpoint, the latest phase in an effort to drive drug money out of the wire transfer industry, U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said yesterday.

Previous investigations revealed that the wire transfer or money remitting industry in New York had been largely transformed by narcotics traffickers into a vehicle for sending drug proceeds to drug source countries, primarily Colombia.

"The sale of narcotics generates huge amounts of bulk cash that the traffickers must launder," Ms. Mauskopf said.

The defendants made the money transfer industry a tool of the drug trade to accomplish that end, she said. The industry is designed partly to serve recent immigrants in the United States who do not have bank accounts and need to send money home to relatives.

The 27 people were arrested early yesterday in a series of raids in which law enforcement agents seized about $300,000 in cash, some of which was hidden in ceilings and wall safes.

The agents said they also found instructions on where in Colombia to wire the money.

The two-year undercover investigation was conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau and the New York Police Department as part of a task force created in 1992 to investigate financial crimes.

Under Operation Pinpoint, confidential informants directed by ICE agents took large sums of money and lists of names of wire transfer recipients to targeted wire transfer stores, according to ICE agent Salvatore Dalessandro.

http://www.nysun.com/article/48256

Haughey bank linked to Cuban crook

Funds deposited in Dublin by a Cuban drug dealer may have been held in the same accounts used to pay Charles Haughey’s bills, the Moriarty Tribunal has found.

Funds deposited in Dublin by a Cuban drug dealer may have been held in the same accounts used to pay Charles Haughey’s bills, the Moriarty Tribunal has found.

Guinness & Mahon Bank, operated in Dublin by Haughey’s financial adviser Des Traynor, made substantial loans in the 1980s to Fernando Pruna, a Cuban exile and US citizen, and several of his companies and associates. The loans, over €3 million, were backed by deposits in Dublin with Guinness Mahon Cayman Trust.

The tribunal concluded in its report last week that these deposits may have been held in the same accounts from which Traynor operated Haughey’s bill-paying service.

Pruna set up a drug-smuggling operation in the 1980s, trafficking cocaine from Colombia to Florida. The deposits in Dublin, which backed the loans (as part of a money-laundering scheme), were the proceeds of drug-dealing. His operation was broken up in 1987. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1993.

The Moriarty report is highly critical of the banking operations conducted by Traynor, John Furze and John Collins, finding that, while they were not involved in the drugs trade themselves, their unorthodox and secretive banking arrangements for tax evasion facilitated money laundering.

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=IRELAND-qqqm=news-qqqid=19833-qqqx=1.asp

Siemens scandal delays Nokia-Siemens merger

15/12/2006 by Carla Moore

Nokia Siemens Networks will start operations in 1Q 2007, not in January 2007 as originally planned.

Communications technology companies Nokia and Siemens announced in a press release that the planned merger to create the new company Nokia Siemens Networks has been pushed back to 1Q 2007 due to the corruption and money laundering scandals that are currently plaguing Siemens. Last month, German authorities launched an investigation into €200m in suspicious transactions and several Siemens employees have been arrested in connection with the scandal.

Closing will be subject to an agreement between Nokia and Siemens on the results and consequences of a Siemens compliance review. This adjustment is an addition to the previously agreed closing conditions. Nokia will participate actively in the review, which is expected to be performed during the first quarter 2007.

Nokia and Siemens have also agreed that the results of the compliance review will be used to develop a compliance program which will be implemented from the start of Nokia Siemens Networks operations.

http://www.digitalmediaasia.com/default.asp?ArticleID=20525

Colombia's Asprilla being investigated for possible links to money-laundering

BOGOTA, Colombia: Colombian authorities are investigating former Parma and Newcastle forward Faustino Asprilla for possible links to a money-laundering ring, the chief federal prosecutor said Monday.

The retired Colombian national team veteran, known simply to many as "Tino", may soon be called to testify, prosecutor Mario Iguaran said, for his ties to a clinic allegedly owned by one of the world's most violent cocaine-trafficking organizations — the Norte del Valle cartel.

In a separate case, the prosecutor also ordered the arrest of the former president of the Deportivo Pereira soccer club, Ramon Rios, on money-laundering charges.

As one of a handful of Colombian players to make a big impact in international soccer in the past decade, Asprilla is a frequent face on television, either endorsing a product or appearing on reality shows.

A native of the southwestern Colombian town of Tulua, Asprilla started out with local sides Cucuta Deportivo and Atletico Nacional before transferring to Parma in Italy's Serie A.

After two years in Italy, Asprilla moved to Newcastle in England where he stayed until 1999. He returned to Parma before transferring to play in Brazil, Mexico, back to Colombia, Chile and ended his career with Estudiantes in Argentina in 2004.

A veteran with more than 50 caps for Colombia, he gained as much notoriety for his volatile temper as he did fame for his creative play.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/11/sports/LA_SPT_SOC_Asprilla_Investigated.php