Prosecutors are charging three Colombian nationals and a purported direct descendant of the Cartier watch and jewelry-making household for allegedly laundering tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.
Based on the indictment unsealed by the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York, Maximilien de Hoop Cartier, Leonardo De Jesus Zuluaga Duque, Erica Milena Lopez Ortiz and Felipe Estrada Echeverry are charged with conspiring to commit cash laundering.
The indictment additional says that the 4 people belong to a community that laundered hundreds of thousands of {dollars} price of the stablecoin Tether (USDT) – cash that allegedly got here from drug trafficking.
“The Community makes use of a system of cash laundering brokers and shell firms within the US, Colombia, and elsewhere to, amongst different issues, launder crime proceeds by way of the US to Colombia. Between in or about Might 2023 and November 2023, Cartier, Zuluaga Duque, Lopez Ortiz, Estrada Echeverry, and others used the community to launder a complete of roughly $14.5 million in Tether derived instantly from the proceeds of drug trafficking.”
Based on the indictment, Cartier operated an over-the-counter (OTC) crypto alternate whereas controlling and working US-based shell firms that held financial institution accounts at varied US lenders.
“In opening these financial institution accounts, Cartier misrepresented the true nature of the enterprise of the Cartier Shell Firms – i.e., Cartier claimed to the banks that the Cartier Shell Firms have been within the enterprise of software program or expertise when, in reality, Cartier was utilizing the businesses to function as an unlicensed cash remitting enterprise associated to the operation of a cryptocurrency alternate.
From January 2020 to the current, Cartier’s unlicensed money-transmitting enterprise executed tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} price of illegal transactions and laundered tons of of hundreds of thousands in prison proceeds, together with drug trafficking proceeds with Zuluaga Duque, Lopez Ortiz, Estrada Echeverry between about Might and November 2023.”
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