Date: Aug. 23, 2024 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Orlando, FL — U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza has sentenced Jihad Williams Morales, Michael Gabriel Robles Vazquez, and Jorge Ivan Ortiz Bull to federal prison terms for conspiracy to commit money laundering and structuring. In total, these individuals and their conspirators, Cristian Rodriguez Labour and Aramys Gonzalez Rodriguez, pleaded guilty to 35 counts of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering, money laundering, and structuring. An additional individual, Gabriel Aldemar Velez-Torres, was indicted May 22 for his role in this conspiracy along with 14 additional counts of money laundering and structuring. He is currently scheduled for trial in October. Name Plea date Count(s) pleaded guilty Sentencing date Sentence imposed Cristian Rodriguez Labour 2/21/24 1 (conspiracy) 6/21/24 7 years Jihad William Morales 5/2/24 1 (conspiracy) 2-8 (money laundering) 9-11 (structuring) 8/22/24 5 years, 10 months Michael Gabriel Robles Vazquez 4/9/24 1 (conspiracy) 12-14 (money laundering) 8/22/24 2 years, 10 months Aramys Gonzalez Rodriguez 3/25/24 1 (conspiracy) 15-23 (money laundering) 24-29 (structuring) 9/18/24 Jorge Ivan Ortiz Buil 4/9/24 1 (conspiracy) 30-34 (money laundering) 35 (structuring) 8/22/24 5 years, 3 months According to court documents, Labour recruited Morales, Robles Vazquez, Gonzalez Rodriguez, and Ortiz Buil to incorporate fake businesses in Florida and open business bank accounts in Deltona and Orlando. In setting up the accounts, the recruited individuals lied to banks about the legitimacy of their businesses – pretending that they were operating legitimate businesses involved in wholesale kitchen appliances (Ortiz-Buil), electronics (Robles Vazquez), or industrial laundering machines (Morales). Unnamed conspirators hacking into the computer systems of small businesses throughout the country then directed wire transfers to the fake businesses in Florida and, when received, Labour, Morales, Robles Vazquez, Gonzalez Rodriguez, and Ortiz Buil immediately transferred the bulk of the funds to businesses in the Zhejiang, Weifang, Shouguang, Huzhou, and Hangzhou regions of China while withdrawing a portion as payment for their role in hiding these proceeds. The transfers were designed to conceal the source of the fraud proceeds and the conspirators further obscured their withdrawals by structuring them to avoid bank reporting requirements. During the course of two weeks in early March 2021, Labour and Morales laundered more than $560,000 and attempted to launder another $200,000 using a single account in Deltona – sending the fraud proceeds to accounts in Zhejiang and Weifang and taking $80,000 in structured withdrawals as payment. From June through November 2021, Labour and Robles Vazquez then used at least four different bank accounts in Orlando to launder or attempt to launder more than $280,000. From August through December 2021, Labour and Gonzalez-Rodriguez used at least three different bank accounts in Orlando to launder more than $1 million. Labour and Ortiz Buil attempted to launder $1 million in one bank account in December 2021 before successfully laundering around $250,000 at four different banks from December 2021 through February 2022, using other individuals that Ortiz-Buil had recruited into the scheme. 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 throughout the United States. This case was investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) and the FBI. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dana E. Hill. 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. 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.
