Djonibek Rahmankulov, Money Laundering, New York 2022

A Queens man has been convicted of using the U.S. financial system to launder millions of dollars in proceeds from fraud.

Djonibek Rahmankulov, 34, of Queens, New York, was found guilty of money laundering conspiracy, bank fraud, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.

Between 2017 and September 2020, Rahmankulov operated a network of shell companies that were used to launder millions of dollars in criminal proceeds from multiple types of criminal activity.

Rahmankulov worked with computer hackers who fraudulently gained control of the bank accounts of victims located throughout the United States and executed millions of dollars in fraudulent wire transfers into bank accounts opened by Rahmankulov and his co-conspirators.

He also worked with a network of pharmacies engaged in Medicare and Medicaid fraud, submitting millions of dollars in fraudulent billing for HIV medications that they did not dispense or obtained illegally.

Rahmankulov created companies to receive these criminal proceeds from the pharmacies and laundered them through a variety of means, including by using them to fund an unlicensed money transmitting business that illegally moved money to and from multiple countries, including Iran.

He laundered the proceeds of COVID-19 relief loans from the Small Business Administration through his companies and made a number of materially false statements to financial institutions in connection with his money laundering schemes.

Rahmankulov is scheduled to be sentenced on January 5, 2023, by U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams and faces the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence.

The prosecution is being handled by the Office’s Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cecilia Vogel, Thane Rehn, and Samuel Raymond in charge of the prosecution.

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