- A Venezuelan national allegedly laundered around $1 billion for crooks, feds say.
- He used a number of crypto wallets to do so.
- The alleged criminal transactions were made using Tether’s USDT on Tron.
The US Department of Justice has charged a man for allegedly laundering $1 billion in criminal funds, using USDT on the Tron blockchain to help him do so.
Feds said in a statement that Venezuelan national Jorge Figueira, 59, allegedly made the transactions in “a scale of criminal conduct that poses a profound threat to financial systems and public safety.”
Court documents unsealed this month allege that Figueira’s cryptocurrency of choice was Tether’s USDT stablecoin, which he used to receive huge payments in digital tokens before converting them via liquidity providers into US dollars.
“Let me be clear with you, [USDT] is used a lot for laundering money,” Feds quoted Figueira saying in a phone call.
“It is used for what we are doing,” he continued. “It is used to transfer money in a quick way, even to make it get to jurisdictions that have some type of issues, etcetera,” he added, using China as an example.
Tron’s blockchain
Feds allege in court documents that blockchain analysts found the illicit money movements were made using the Tron blockchain — the crypto network founded by entrepreneur Justin Sun.
USDT, the most-traded digital asset, runs on a number of blockchains but transactions on Tron are faster and cheaper than other networks.
Figueira allegedly made many transactions to a number of crypto wallets before using liquidity providers to then convert the crypto to cash for American bank accounts.
But using USDT or other cryptocurrencies to launder money is nothing new, FBI Special Agent Stephen A. Walker said in the affidavit.
“The cryptocurrency ecosystem is often used by money launderers to receive money, and to launder it quickly, anonymously, and at scale,” Walker testified.
Walker added that “a series of convoluted transactions and quick swaps between financial accounts, whether traditional bank accounts or cryptocurrency wallets” often shows that money movements are being obfuscated.
Big transfers
Figueira allegedly received huge transfers for crooks, with feds quoting him boasting that he and his associates would manage sometimes up to $700 million per month, sending funds all over the world — from Colombia to China.
Court documents added Figueira allegedly said he could receive $100 million in a single transaction with his digital wallet.
The Justice Department said it had identified approximately $1 billion that moved through digital wallets used by Figueira and his operation to individuals and businesses throughout the world.
Figueira now faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of conspiracy to launder money, the Justice Department said.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to further questions from DL News.
DL News reached out to Tron’s press department for comment.
Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.
