Date: Dec. 12, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Orlando, FL — U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza has sentenced Gabriel Aldemar Velez Torres (Orlando) to 3 years and 10 months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering and structuring. Velez Torres entered a guilty plea on Sept. 17, 2024. According to court documents, in late February 2021, Cristian Rodriguez Labour recruited Velez Torres into this scheme and used his personal identifiers to incorporate a fake business, “Gabes Go Getter, Inc.” Between March 9 and 12, 2021, Velez Torres opened four different bank accounts at local banks in the name of this fake business. Thereafter, other conspirators working with Labour hacked into businesses throughout the country, causing those businesses to wire large amounts of funds to accounts held by “Gabes Go Getter, Inc.” Once received, Velez Torres transferred the bulk of the fraudulent proceeds to offshore accounts held by businesses in Weifang, China, then withdrew a portion of the fraud proceeds as payment for the laundering conspirators, often structuring those withdrawals to avoid law enforcement and regulatory scrutiny. During this conspiracy, conspirators directed $2,183,086.70 of fraud proceeds to and through business accounts for “Gabes Go Getter, Inc,” $741,043.11 of which was successfully laundered to Chinese offshore accounts. Overall, members of the conspiracy successfully laundered $3,323,941 to offshore accounts in China and unsuccessfully attempted to launder another $5,057,777, all of which were the proceeds or attempted proceeds of computer fraud and cyber intrusions on small businesses and other entities throughout the United States and Canada. Other conspirators received the following sentences: Name Plea date Count(s) in indictment to which defendant pleaded guilty Sentencing date Sentence imposed Cristian Rodriguez Labour 02/21/2024 1 (conspiracy) 06/21/2024 7 years Jihad William Morales 05/02/2024 1 (conspiracy) 2-8 (money laundering) 9-11 (structuring) 08/22/2024 5 years, 10 months Michael Gabriel Robles Vazquez 04/09/2024 1 (conspiracy) 12-14 (money laundering) 08/22/2024 2 years, 10 months Aramys Gonzalez Rodriguez 03/25/2024 1 (conspiracy) 15-23 (money laundering) 24-29 (structuring) 09/18/2024 4 years, 3 months Jorge Ivan Ortiz Buil 04/09/2024 1 (conspiracy) 30-34 (money laundering) 35 (structuring) 08/22/2024 5 years, 3 months This case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dana E. Hill. IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.