Colombian Crypto Broker Sentenced to 160 Months for Money Laundering

A New York federal judge has sentenced Leonardo de Jesus Zuluaga Duque to 160 months in prison for his role in a money laundering scheme involving cryptocurrency and drug trafficking. The sentencing was announced by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York on October 21.

Zuluaga Duque, who was described as a Colombia-based crypto broker with a supervisory role in the operation, helped launder approximately $14.5 million in Tether derived from drug trafficking between May and November 2023. Alongside his prison term, Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil imposed five years of supervised release and ordered the forfeiture of $14,751,846.

The laundering scheme involved converting criminal proceeds into Tether, which were then passed to an unlicensed money-transmission business and exchanged for US dollars. These funds were subsequently transferred to Colombian companies through US shell companies, where they were converted into pesos and distributed. Prosecutors highlighted the complexity of the operation, noting that monitoring blockchain transactions alone would not reveal the full extent of the laundering activities.

After serving his prison sentence, Zuluaga Duque will face an additional five years of supervised release.