A former Venezuelan National Guard officer is headed to the slammer after pleading guilty to a $1.7 million money laundering scheme.
Nepmar Jesus Escalona Enriquez, 47, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison on March 23 for his role in a brazen money laundering plot that involved bribes to foreign officials and defrauding foreign financial institutions.
According to court documents, Escalona and his co-conspirators carried out the scheme by submitting fraudulent applications to the Venezuelan currency regulation authority, known as CADIVI, to deceive Banesco Bank, the Central Bank of Venezuela, and Venezuelan customs authorities into releasing U.S. dollars to Escalona and his co-conspirators outside of Venezuela.
The scheme, which was centered around purported food imports to Venezuela, resulted in the transfer of nearly $1.7 million in U.S. dollars from Banesco Bank into an account controlled by the conspirators.
Escalona further admitted to arranging bribes to be paid to officials in Venezuela to prevent detection of the scheme, as well as instructing a co-conspirator to wire transfer proceeds of the fraud to four financial institutions in the United States. The illicit wire transfers totaled approximately $420,847.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Miami Field Division and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Goldbarg, Trial Attorney Emily Cohen, and Deputy Chief Joseph Palazzo of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section.
U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division praised the efforts of the DEA and prosecutors in securing the conviction.
The sentence was handed down in the Southern District of Florida. Escalona pleaded guilty on March 4 to one count of money laundering conspiracy.
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Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Money Laundering
- Source: Official Source ↗
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