CHICAGO — A federal judge in Chicago has sentenced a Chinese national to a decade in prison for laundering $62 million in illegal drug proceeds on behalf of traffickers in Mexico after a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Chicago investigation.
From 2016 to 2018, Haiping Pan schemed with others to launder up to $3 million per month in drug proceeds using secretive money pickups in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and other parts of the United States, followed by a series of currency swaps between the United States and China, and China and Mexico. Pan played a significant role in the money laundering process, using his international financial expertise and relationships with members or associates of Mexican drug cartels to facilitate the clandestine flow of drug money through businesses and banks around the world. The illicit proceeds ultimately were remitted to the traffickers in Mexico.
During the conspiracy, Pan and his co-conspirators completed an average of one to two pickups per week, with the amounts ranging from $150,000 to $1 million per pickup. In total, Pan knowingly participated in the laundering and attempted laundering of approximately $62 million in drug proceeds.
“The sentencing of Haiping Pan is a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts to dismantle complex money laundering networks that facilitate the operations of transnational criminal organizations. Pan’s criminal activities posed a serious threat to financial systems and public safety worldwide. This case underscores the importance of international collaboration in combating such illicit activities, and we are proud of the relentless efforts of our agents and partners,” said HSI Chicago Special Agent in Charge Sean Fitzgerald. “This case serves as a powerful reminder that law enforcement will pursue and bring to justice those who engage in sophisticated schemes to launder money and further criminal enterprises. We remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting our communities and upholding the rule of law.”
Pan, 44, is a Chinese national who facilitated the money transfers while residing in Guadalajara, Mexico. He was arrested in Mexico and extradited to the U.S. in 2022. U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman imposed the 10-year prison sentence during a hearing on Dec. 12 in federal court in Chicago.
The sentence was announced by Sean Fitzgerald, Special Agent-in-Charge of HSI in Chicago, Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Ramsey E. Covington, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation Chicago Field Office. The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard M. Rothblatt.
“The defendant was a significant part of a recent phenomenon in which a relatively small network of Chinese money brokers based in Mexico have come to dominate international money laundering markets,” the government argued in its sentencing memorandum. “Defendant’s crimes allowed his drug trafficking clients to secure the fruits of their pernicious trade faster, cheaper, and more securely than ever before.”
Numerous other money launderers were convicted as part of the federal investigation, including Pan’s co-conspirators Xianbing Gan, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison, and Huanxin Long, who was sentenced to five and a half years.
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