Chinese National Sentenced For Laundering $62 Million In Drug Money
Monday, December 30, 2024, 6:30 P.M. ET. 2 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,
CHICAGO, IL.- Earlier this month, a 44-year-old Chinese national was sentenced to federal prison for his role in a two-year money laundering operation that laundered $62 million in illegal drug proceeds for Mexican drug traffickers.
On Thursday, December 12, 2024, Haiping Pan, 44, a Chinese national, appeared in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman to 120 months in federal prison for his conviction of Money Laundering; and Conspiracy.
According To The U.S. Attorney’s Office
According to Acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual and charging documents filed with the District Court, beginning in 2016 and lasting through 2018, Pan conspired with others to launder up to $3 million per month in illegal drug proceeds using secretive money pickups in Chicago, New York, Loa Angeles, and other locations in the United States.
The money was laundered through a series of currency swaps between the United States and China and between China and Mexico. Pan played a significant role in the money laundering operation, using his international financial knowledge and relationships with members or associates of Mexican drug traffickers to facilitate the clandestine flow of drug money through businesses and banks around the world. The illicit proceeds were ultimately 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 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.
Pan, who facilitated the money transfers, was arrested in Guadalajara, Mexico, and was extradited to the United States in 2022. Numerous other money launders were convicted as part of the federal investigation, including Pan’s co-conspirators Xianbing Gan, who was sentenced to 144 months in federal prison, and Huanxin Long, who was sentenced to 66 months in federal prison.
