Guilty of money laundering conspiracy that involved millions of dollars in drug-trafficking proceeds

Investigators scrutinised bank records showing that, over five months, almost $9 million “moved from Europe, through the U.S. correspondent banking system, and on to businesses located primarily in Chile and China.”

According to court documents that were revealed in documents unsealed on May 21. [see below]

• FEDERICO EZEQUIEL SANTORO VASSALLO, 44, AKA CAPITAN, was a Paraguay-based transnational money launderer. Santoro was a close associate of Uruguayan national SEBASTIAN ENRIQUE MARSET CABRERA, 29,
• Santoro served as a transnational money launderer for drug-trafficking organisations and facilitated the movement of millions of dollars of drug proceeds from various countries in Europe to South America and elsewhere.

• SEBASTIAN ENRIQUE MARSET CABRERA is a transnational drug trafficker responsible for moving tons of cocaine worth millions of dollars from South America to Europe.
  • Marset allegedly is the leader of a large-scale drug trafficking organisation that distributed thousands of kilograms of cocaine, including as many as ten tons at a time, from South America typically to Europe.
  • His organisation was named The Marset drug trafficking organisation
• The U.S. State Department
  • Is offering a reward of $2 million for information leading to the arrest of Marset, 29.

• The Attorney’s Office
• Also unsealed a statement of facts, agreed upon by both the prosecution and defence, in the case of Santoro, who has pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing.

• The statement says an unidentified conspirator of Marset’s
• “created false invoices to move money that appeared to be connected to legitimate business, when in fact no such goods or services were being acquired.”

How

• The Marset drug trafficking organisation created offshore companies and a complex fake billing system to bypass anti-money laundering controls at banks in the U.S. and elsewhere, according to newly unsealed court documents.
• The case highlights how traffickers can capitalise on the difficulties banks have in detecting illicit funds when they flow through multi-layered networks of companies and accounts,  
• Investigators scrutinised bank records showing that, over five months, almost $9 million “moved from Europe, through the U.S. correspondent banking system, and on to businesses located primarily in Chile and China.”
• In relying on U.S. correspondent banks — which serve as intermediaries to facilitate international transactions — the alleged traffickers appear to have exploited a weak point in the global financial system.
• When they act on behalf of other financial institutions, correspondent banks don’t do the same scrutiny as they would with their customers. Instead, the onus falls on the original bank seeking to move funds.

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• The Marset drug trafficking organisation allegedly traffics cocaine in BOLIVIA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, BRAZIL, BELGIUM, THE NETHERLANDS, PORTUGAL, and elsewhere.
• Santoro and his co-conspirators arranged for the collection of narcotics proceeds and utilised couriers and tokens to deliver bulk illicit currency, typically in euros, covertly.
• Santoro’s co-conspirators specialised in placing the illicit currency into the global banking system. He then would direct the movement of the funds internationally, usually via bank wire transfer.
• Santoro typically directed that the funds be delivered in U.S. dollars, and a correspondent bank in the United States would facilitate the transaction.
• Santoro used at least seven businesses to facilitate the transmission of money and hid the location and ownership of the assets being laundered by using unrelated companies, all registered as purportedly doing business in different, unrelated industries.
• Santoro used businesses registered in South America and Asia to receive the laundered drug proceeds. They concealed the source of the funds by creating false invoices to justify the wire transfers.
• Santoro and, allegedly, Marset threatened violence to protect their drug-trafficking and money laundering activities.
• Santoro laundered millions of dollars of drug proceeds and, in less than five months, directed the movement of at least $8 million in drug-trafficking funds through U.S. banks. Santoro took a percentage of the illicit bulk cash proceeds he laundered as payment.
• In January 2021, Marset allegedly owed more than €17 million from the proceeds of a single shipment of cocaine. Santoro arranged the collection and laundering of at least €5 million of those funds, most of which were laundered using the U.S. banking system.

Source

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/alleged-international-drug-trafficker-indicted-prolific-uruguayan-money-launderer

https://www.occrp.org/en/news/unsealed-court-documents-reveal-how-drug-traffickers-targeted-us-banks