CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — A Chinese man involved in a multi-million-dollar money laundering organization has been sentenced to over a decade in prison for his role in the scheme.
Jianfei Lu, 31, of China, was a “prolific” courier of the Chinese money laundering organization (CMLO), according to the Department of Justice. Court documents show that he collected drug trafficking proceeds from U.S.-based drug traffickers and deposited the money, using fake and real identities, into shell company bank accounts registered by other members of the CMLO.
Lu personally picked up and deposited over $20 million in illicit bulk cash and served as a manager for the CMLO. In addition, Lu procured fake driver’s licenses for the couriers, which were used to deposit illicit funds at major U.S. banks.
“Chinese money laundering networks have become a key enabler to the Mexican cartels,” saidAssistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Theorganization eliminated by this prosecution alone laundered more than $90 million in less than two years. This emerging and enormous threat to the United States has only become more complex. As part of our mission to totally eliminate cartels, the Criminal Division and our law enforcement partners will investigate and prosecute all facets of cartel activity, including those groups that launder and return the money to them so that they can traffic more poison in our country and throughout the world.”…