Cristian Rodriguez Labour, Money Laundering, Florida 2024

Cristian Rodriguez Labour, a resident of Orlando, Florida, has pleaded guilty to a multi-million dollar conspiracy to launder computer fraud proceeds offshore to Chinese companies.

According to the plea agreements and other court documents, Labour recruited Jihad William Morales, Michael Gabriel Robles Vazquez, Aramys Gonzalez Rodriguez, and Jorge Ivan Ortiz Buil to incorporate fake businesses in Florida and open business bank accounts in Deltona and Orlando.

The group would then receive wire transfers from unnamed conspirators who had hacked into the computer systems of small businesses throughout the country. Labour, Morales, Robles Vazquez, Gonzalez Rodriguez, and Ortiz Buil would then immediately transfer the bulk of the funds to businesses in the Zhejiang, Weifang, Shouguang, Huzhou, and Hangzhou regions of China while withdrawing a portion as payment for their participation in the conspiracy.

The transfers were designed to conceal the source of the fraud proceeds and the defendants further obscured their withdrawals by structuring them to avoid bank reporting requirements.

Over a two-week period, in early March 2021, Labour and Morales laundered over $560,000 and attempted to launder another $200,000 using a single account in Deltona by sending the fraud proceeds to accounts in Zhejiang and Weifang and taking $80,000 in structured withdrawals as payment.

Morales was captured on camera during one of the withdrawals, as seen in the photograph below:

Cristian Rodriguez Labour, 35 counts of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering, concealment money laundering, and structuring

City and state: Orlando, Florida

Guilty plea date: 2/21/24

Sentencing date: 5/22/24

Sentence: Up to 20 years in federal prison for each count of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering and up to 10 years’ imprisonment for each count of structuring

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/five-plead-guilty-multi-million-dollar-conspiracy-launder-computer-fraud-proceeds