Crypto Broker Gets 160 Months In US Drug-Money Laundering Case

TL;DR: A Colombian crypto broker received a 160-month prison sentence in a US laundering and narcotics case, prosecutors announced October 21. The account describes a scheme moving criminal proceeds through Tether and US shell companies. A New York federal judge has sentenced Leonardo de Jesus Zuluaga Duque to 160 months in prison in a case involving cryptocurrency, drug proceeds and transfers through the US banking system. The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced the sentence on Wednesday. Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil also imposed five years of supervised release and ordered forfeiture of $14,751,846, according to prosecutors. The office described Zuluaga Duque as a Colombia-based crypto broker with a supervisory role in the network. It said he and others helped launder approximately $14.5 million in Tether derived from drug trafficking between May and November 2023. The Route Ran Through Both Crypto And Banks Prosecutors’ account describes proceeds converted into Tether, passed to an unlicensed money-transmission business and exchanged for US dollars. US shell companies then transferred funds to Colombian companies before the money was converted into pe...