Central Florida defendants have been sentenced in a multi-million dollar conspiracy to launder money to China.
U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza has sentenced 23-year-old Jihad Williams Morales of Sanford, 24-year-old Michael Gabriel Robles Vazquez of Orlando, and 33-year-old Jorge Ivan Ortiz Bull of Orlando to federal prison terms for conspiracy to commit money laundering and structuring. In total, these individuals and their conspirators, Cristian Rodriguez Labour and Aramys Gonzalez Rodriguez, pleaded guilty to 35 counts of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering, money laundering, and structuring.
|
Name |
Count(s) Pleaded Guilty |
Sentence Imposed |
||
| Cristian Rodriguez Labour | 1 (conspiracy) | 7 years | ||
| Jihad William Morales | 1 (conspiracy)
2-8 (money laundering) 9-11 (structuring) |
5 years,10 months | ||
| Michael Gabriel Robles Vazquez | 1 (conspiracy)
12-14 (money laundering) |
2 years, 10 months | ||
| Aramys Gonzalez Rodriguez | 1 (conspiracy)
15-23 (money laundering) 24-29 (structuring) |
|||
| Jorge Ivan Ortiz Buil | 1 (conspiracy)
30-34 (money laundering) 35 (structuring) |
5 years, 3 months |
An additional individual, Gabriel Aldemar Velez-Torres, was indicted on May 22nd, for his role in this conspiracy along with 14 additional counts of money laundering and structuring. He is currently scheduled for trial in October.
According to court documents, Labour recruited Morales, Robles Vazquez, Gonzalez Rodriguez, and Ortiz Buil to incorporate fake businesses in Florida and open business bank accounts in Deltona and Orlando. In setting up the accounts, the recruited individuals lied to banks about the legitimacy of their businesses – pretending that they were operating legitimate businesses involved in wholesale kitchen appliances (Ortiz-Buil), electronics (Robles Vazquez), or industrial laundering machines (Morales).
Unnamed conspirators hacking into the computer systems of small businesses throughout the country then directed wire transfers to the fake businesses in Florida and, when received, Labour, Morales, Robles Vazquez, Gonzalez Rodriguez, and Ortiz Buil immediately transferred the bulk of the funds to businesses in the Zhejiang, Weifang, Shouguang, Huzhou, and Hangzhou regions of China while withdrawing a portion as payment for their role in hiding these proceeds.
The transfers were designed to conceal the source of the fraud proceeds and the conspirators further obscured their withdrawals by structuring them to avoid bank reporting requirements.
During the course of two weeks in early March 2021, Labour and Morales laundered more than $560,000 and attempted to launder another $200,000 using a single account in Deltona – sending the fraud proceeds to accounts in Zhejiang and Weifang and taking $80,000 in structured withdrawals as payment.
From June through November 2021, Labour and Robles Vazquez then used at least four different bank accounts in Orlando to launder or attempt to launder more than $280,000. From August through December 2021, Labour and Gonzalez-Rodriguez used at least three different bank accounts in Orlando to launder more than $1 million. Labour and Ortiz Buil attempted to launder $1 million in one bank account in December 2021 before successfully laundering around $250,000 at four different banks from December 2021 through February 2022, using other individuals that Ortiz-Buil had recruited into the scheme.
Overall, members of the conspiracy successfully laundered $3,323,941 to offshore accounts in China and unsuccessfully attempted to launder another $5,057,777, all of which were the proceeds or attempted proceeds of computer fraud and cyber intrusions on small businesses throughout the United States.
This case was investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigation and the FBI. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dana E. Hill.
