Venezuelan national sentenced to 12 years in prison for laundering over a billion dollars in illicit funds

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A Venezuelan national who resided in Miami was sentenced today to 12 years in prison for conspiracy to launder money. Jorge Figueira, 60, laundered billions of dollars for numerous and varied illicit actors, including drug trafficking organizations. Figueira also agreed to a $1 billion money judgment.

According to court documents, the laundering network of Figueira used various bank accounts, cryptocurrency exchange accounts, private cryptocurrency wallets, and shell companies to launder voluminous amounts of illicit money into and out of the United States. Figueira used a series of steps, including the conversion of money to cryptocurrency that was directed to a series of digital wallets. Figueira would send the funds to liquidity providers to exchange the cryptocurrency for dollars, then transfer the dollars to Figueira's bank accounts and ultimately to the intended recipient. These transactions were performed to conceal the nature of the funds from law enforcement authorities.

More than a billion dollars moved through the identified cryptocurrency wallet and various financial accounts. Within Figueira's financial accounts, the majority of the inbound funds were received from cryptocurrency trading platforms. The majority of outbound funds were sent to various businesses and individuals located in the United States and overseas, including high-risk jurisdictions such as Colombia, China, Panamá, and Mexico.

Theophani K. Stamos, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Jeffrey L. Tyler, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office's Criminal Division, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Catherine Rosenberg and Edgardo Rodriguez are prosecuting the case.

Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District CourtLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link. for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACERLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link. by searching for Case No. 1:26-cr-74.