Colombia says 8 Israelis involved in money laundering and drug trafficking

Local media reports claim Israeli 'former military men' also suspected of money laundering, exploitation of minors. Suspects deny allegations: 'We're legit businessmen' Eight Israelis were arrested in Colombia on suspicion of drug trafficking, money laundering and exploitation of minors, the country's chief prosecutor told local media outlets on Tuesday.

The suspects, who were described in the reports as "former military men," reside in the city of Taganga. According to one of the reports, they are suspected of sexually exploiting teenage girls.

As part of a separate investigation, the suspects are also being questioned about their ties to a local drug trafficking ring. The chief prosecutor noted that the Israeli men were under surveillance during the past year, after arousing the suspicion of local police officers and community leaders. One of the reports claimed that police obtained tape recordings, some in Hebrew, which might incriminate the suspects.

The suspects denied the allegations, claiming that they were legitimate businessmen. In January 2011, Colombia asked Israel to extradite former Israeli army Lt. Col. Yair Klein, who was convicted by a Colombian court and sentenced in absentia to nearly 11 years in prison for training drug-traffickers' assassins in the late 1980s.Klein was convicted in Colombia of criminal conspiracy in 2001 for organizing training by Israeli mercenaries in "military tactics and techniques" including bomb-making for gunmen employed by ranchers and drug traffickers.

Some of the trainees would go on to commit some of Colombia's most heinous massacres. As well, US and British investigations determined two decades ago that Klein was also involved in smuggling 400 Galil assault rifles and 100 Uzi submachine guns bought from Israeli into Colombia in 1989 when his plans to create a mercenary-ran training camp on the Caribbean island of Antigua unraveled. Arrested in Moscow in 2007, Klein spent three years in a Moscow prison on a Colombian extradition request before being freed in November 2010 after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Colombia could not guarantee his physical safety owing to his poor human rights record.

Michael Hearns an Anti Money Laundering specialist with over 24 years of AML experience can also be found at http://www.launderingmoney.com/ and on twitter at : http://twitter.com/#!/LaunderingMoney http://moneylaunderingworld.blogspot.com/   and http://launderingmoney.com/

Internet escort companies charged with money laundering

The United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Philadelphia-based corporations, R.S. Duffy, Inc. and National A-l Advertising, Inc., pleaded guilty on Nov. 22 in federal court in Williamsport before United States District Court Judge Christopher C. Conner.
Pursuant to a plea agreement with the Government National A-1 Advertising and R.S. Duffy pleaded guilty to the money laundering conspiracy charge in the Information, will serve a probation term of 18 months, and pay a $1,500,000 fine.
In addition, under the terms of the plea agreement, the defendants agreed to the criminal forfeiture of $4.9 million in cash derived from the unlawful activity, as well as forfeiture of the domain name. Escorts.corn, all of which represent property used to facilitate the commission of the offenses.
Sentencing has been scheduled for March 1, 2012.
According to United States Attorney Peter J. Smith, on November 1, 2011, an Information was filed in Williamsport, alleging that the corporate defendants operated an Internet enterprise called Escorts.corn which facilitated interstate prostitution activities.
The defendants developed and operated an Internet web site, using the domain name Escorts.corn, and created an on-line network for prostitutes, escort services, and others to advertise their illegal activities to consumers and users of those services.
The defendants received subscription fees and payments in the form of money orders, checks, and credit card credits, and wire transfers from users of Escorts.corn throughout the nation.
The funds the defendants received were the proceeds of violations of federal laws prohibiting interstate travel in aid of racketeering enterprises, specifically prostitution, and aiding and abetting such travel.
The money laundering conspiracy charge alleged that the defendants agreed to engage in monetary transactions in property of a value greater than $10,000 derived from those unlawful activities. In addition, the Information alleged that in connection with the operation of Escorts.corn, the defendants created and maintained a network of Internet customer service accounts which facilitated and caused the transfer and movement of the proceeds of these unlawful activities from locations throughout the United States, including the Middle District of Pennsylvania, to the defendants' business operations at 106 South 7th Street in Philadelphia and to the defendants' accounts at financial institutions, investment funds, and financial services providers.

Michael Hearns an Anti Money Laundering specialist with over 24 years of AML experience can also be found at www.launderingmoney.com and on twitter at : http://twitter.com/#!/LaunderingMoney

International Money Launderer pleads guilty in court

By Samuel Rubenfield
Wall Street Journal

A Romanian national pleaded guilty Thursday in a Washington, D.C. federal court to leading an international money laundering network for a transnational crime network based in Eastern Europe.
Roman Teodor, a resident of Romania, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and he faces up to 20 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 29.
Teodor was indicted along with five co-defendants on Jan. 9, 2008.
According to court documents, the scheme operated from July 2005 to November 2006, and it involved the posting of fraudulent ads on eBay and other websites offering expensive vehicles and boats that the conspirators didn’t possess. Victims seeking to purchase the boats or vehicles wired money to an entity that appeared to be affiliated with eBay but wasn’t.
Instead, the money would be wired directly to bank accounts in Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland controlled by the conspirators,  netting them about $1.4 million, according to the Justice Department.
One of the co-defendants in the case, Georgi Vasilev Pletnyov, pleaded guilty in April, and is scheduled to be sentenced a week before Teodor. Three other co-defendants were already sentenced, and a fourth remains on the loose.

Michael Hearns an Anti Money Laundering specialist with over 24 years of AML experience can also be found at www.launderingmoney.com and on twitter at : http://twitter.com/#!/LaunderingMoney

Money Laundering group in Australia dismantled

By The Daily Mail

To the outside world, it was a shabby, back-street fabric shop in Cabramatta run by a slight Vietnamese woman called "Boss Lady". But Trang Thi Phuong Nguyen, 55, was trading in much more than cotton and silk.

She was the mastermind behind an elaborate money-laundering operation that allegedly transferred $2 million out of the country. Incredibly, Nguyen honed her skills after a stint with AUSTRAC, a federal government agency responsible for monitoring money laundering in Australia.

Court documents show Nguyen, who over the past decade has been the manager of five legal money transferring businesses in NSW, trained with AUSTRAC in 2007.

Over a 10-week period, Nguyen orchestrated 234 illegal transfers of cash to Vietnam from the material shop in  Cabramatta and a grocery store in Bankstown.

She legally operated money-transfer businesses in each shop, but in 2007 allowed customers to transfer cash amounts greater than $100,000 by breaking the money into separate amounts of less than $10,000 to overcome her statutory obligation of reporting the transfers to AUSTRAC.

The court heard that on one occasion a "short Vietnamese woman" asked an employee to split $142,941 in to 25 separate money transfers.Nguyen was sentenced to five years' jail after losing an appeal in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal last month. These were made out to a series of false names but were all destined to go to the one location, court documents said.

Another included up to 12 transfers to different names all written in the same handwriting, court documents show.Nguyen marked the broken up amounts with the instruction "giao chung" - "deliver together" - the court heard. Court documents show she also had agents in Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia who transferred money to Vietnam.

Michael Hearns an Anti Money Laundering specialist with over 24 years of AML experience can also be found at www.launderingmoney.com and on twitter at : http://twitter.com/#!/LaunderingMoney

Feds arrest 16 in cocaine trafficking, money laundering bust

By Christopher Seward
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Federal authorities say they have arrested 16 suspects and dismantled a major Mexican drug trafficking ring operating out of metro Atlanta.
U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said alleged drug traffickers and money launderers were arrested early Wednesday as part of the Drug Enforcement Administration's three-year "Operation G-60″ investigation.  She said more than $7 million worth of cocaine  and more than $ 1 million in "dirty drug money" was confiscated.
“Operation G-60 has dealt a severe blow to the Mexican drug cartels operating in the metro Atlanta area," Yates said.
"These traffickers were clearly working under the direction of Mexican drug cartel leadership," said John S. Comer, acting special agent in charge of the DEA Atlanta Field Division. " The substances that they distributed clearly destroyed lives."
The federal charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison and a fine of up to $4 million.
Agents seized  312 kilograms of cocaine, about 1,525 kilograms of marijuana and more than $1.5 million in drug money. Wednesday's arrests were part of a criminal indictment handed down by a federal grand jury on May 11 in which 32 individuals were charged for their participation in various drug-related criminal offenses, including conspiring and possessing with intent to distribute at least 5 kilograms of cocaine and at least 1,000 kilograms of marijuana, as well as related money laundering charges.
Yates said the trafficking ring consisted of  several  “cells” in the Atlanta area. Some of those arrested allegedly were responsible for transporting drugs and drug money, and maintaining “stash houses” and vehicles used by the organization in metro Atlanta.
The suspects arrested included  Marvin Edleman Rodas-Perez, 39 of Norcross;   Fatima Vasquez, 24, of  Lawrenceville; Jose Valencia, 34, of Stockbridge;  Martin Ayala-Casteneda, 34, of College Park;   Jose Vargas, 29, of Morrow; Jose Sanchez-Valencia, 22, of Stockbridge;  Geovany Martinez-Vargas, 23, of Stockbridge;  Sonia Sanchez, 34, of Atlanta;  Carmen Barbosa Mendoza, 33, of Gwinnett County;   Tomar Shaw, 32, of Fairburn;  David Sanchez, 31, of Johns Creek;  Juan Castinanda, 25, of Johns Creek;   Rudy Valencia, 27, of Johns Creek;  Roberto Lopez-Martinez, 28, of Atlanta; Wilson Tejada, 30, of New York, NY; and Maria Del Rosario Diaz-Garcia, 28. No city was given for Diaz-Garcia.

Michael Hearns an Anti Money Laundering specialist with over 24 years of AML experience can also be found at www.launderingmoney.com and on twitter at : http://twitter.com/#!/LaunderingMoney

Fifteen arrested in money laundering inquiry

By BBC News

Fifteen people have been arrested across England in an investigation into the suspected laundering of more than £200m.

More than 250 officers from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and police raided properties in Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Yorkshire and Nottingham.

The raids were part of a long-running investigation, codenamed Operation Enigma, HMRC said.

HMRC said the activity "sent a clear message" about money laundering.

Seven people, four men and three women aged between 32 and 71, were arrested in Rochdale.

A 31-year-old man was arrested in Manchester.

Four men, aged between 27 and 55, were arrested in Bradford.

In Nottingham, two men aged 43 and 37 were arrested while a 50-year-old man was arrested in Southport.

Alan Lee, HMRC's deputy director for criminal investigation, said: "Operation Enigma is an HMRC-led investigation targeting money laundering offences.

"Further details cannot be provided at this early stage, as our investigation is continuing.

"However, our activity today sends out a clear message to those involved in this type of criminality.

"Attempts to launder the proceeds of crime are treated extremely seriously by HMRC, and we will relentlessly pursue any individuals or crime gangs believed to be actively involved in money laundering."

Michael Hearns an Anti Money Laundering specialist with over 24 years of AML experience can also be found at www.launderingmoney.com and on twitter at : http://twitter.com/#!/LaunderingMoney