The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York has charged a member of the Cartier family and five Colombian citizens with laundering drug proceeds through the USDT stablecoin.
According to authorities, the defendants were members of a money laundering network operating in the United States and Colombia. They used a system of brokers and shell companies to carry out their criminal activities.
A direct descendant of a family of jewelers, Maximilian de Hoop Cartier, has been operating an unlicensed over-the-counter cryptocurrency trading platform since around January 2020. The transactions were conducted through a group of fictitious companies, including Bullpix Solutions LLC, Vintech Capital LLC, VC Innovated Technologies LLC, AZ Technologies LLC, Softmill LLC and Sun Technologies LLC.
His accomplices Leonardo de Jesus Zualaga Duque, Erica Milena Lopez Ortiz, Alexander Areiza Ceballos and Adrian Areiza Ceballos smuggled more than 100 kg of cocaine into the United States. Another defendant, Felipe Estrada Echeverri, participated in money laundering.
In total, from January 2020 to date, Cartier's OTC platform has processed "hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit transactions and laundered hundreds of millions in criminal proceeds," including $14.5 million in drug trafficking proceeds from May to November 2023.
Cartier was accused of money laundering, bank fraud, and running an unlicensed money transfer business. He was arrested on February 22 in Miami.
Five Colombian citizens were taken into custody by local authorities on April 30.
The case has been sent to court.
Earlier it was reported that US authorities accused three former top managers of the crypto lending platform Cred of conspiracy to commit money laundering and fraud in the amount of $783 million.#binance
