Rodrigo Alvarenga, partner of Cynthia Tarragó in money laundering crimes, acknowledged having transferred money without a license in the United States. This was reported by the United States Department of Justice on its website.
A Paraguayan man admitted Friday his role in facilitating an international money laundering conspiracy, US Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.
Rodrigo Alvarenga Paredes, 35, pleaded guilty before US District Judge Freda L. Wolfson in Trenton federal court to information charging him with one count of operating a money transfer business without a license. Paredes was previously charged by complaint with co-defendants Cynthia Tarragó Diaz and Raimundo Va of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Alvarenga made his initial appearance before Chief Judge Wolfson on Friday and pleaded guilty to the information. He was released pending sentencing.
This sentence is expected to be issued on November 22 next.
According to the United States Department of Justice publication, from March 2018 to November 2019, Alvarenga owned and operated a currency exchange business in the Republic of Paraguay, which was neither licensed nor registered to operate as a money transmission business under the laws of the United States or the State of New Jersey.
Until January 2019, Tarrago was a member of the Paraguayan Congress, and in late 2019 he had publicly announced his intention to run for mayor of the capital district of Asunción. The investigation revealed that Tarrago and her husband, Va, agreed to accept at least $2 million from two people posing as narcotics traffickers, believing the money came from illegal narcotics trafficking. Tarrago and Va agreed to launder the funds through an international network of accounts to hide the illicit source of the proceeds.
Tarrago and Va traveled to New Jersey and Florida on multiple occasions and accepted approximately $800,000 from the alleged drug traffickers, and had those funds transmitted through Alvarenga’s currency exchange business; Using his unlicensed business, Alvarenga then had those funds transferred through accounts located in various countries and ultimately had the funds transferred back to an account held by the alleged drug traffickers. To disguise the illicit source of the funds, Tarrago, Va and Alvarenga coordinated to generate fraudulent invoices that established legitimate business reasons for the transfers of the laundered funds.
Unbeknownst to Tarrago and Va, the currency they accepted from the alleged drug traffickers was not actually illicit drug proceeds, but was provided by two undercover FBI agents as part of an undercover investigation of the money laundering ring. Alvarenga, operating under the auspices of his currency exchange business in Paraguay, facilitated Tarrago and Va’s money laundering by having covert funds transmitted through his currency exchange business and back to the undercover account of the FBI, knowing that the transactions violated United States law. and regulations.
The unlicensed money transmission charge to which Alvarenga pleaded guilty carries a potential statutory maximum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross amount of any pecuniary gains any person derived from the crime. , whichever is greater; or twice the gross amount of any pecuniary loss suffered by the victims of the crime, whichever is greater. Tarragó and Va were each sentenced to prison terms of 33 months. Alvarenga’s sentencing is scheduled for November 9, 2022.
US Attorney Sellinger credited special agents with the FBI, Newark Division, Trenton Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jesse Levine, with the investigation that led to today’s guilty plea. He also thanked the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs for its assistance in the case.
The government is represented by Assistant US Attorneys R. Joseph Gribko of the Trenton Criminal Division and J. Brendan Day, Attorney-in-Charge of the Trenton Branch of the US Attorney’s Office.
Source: United States Department of Justice.
