Former Rio Rico branch manager sentenced to 30 months for money laundering
Sep 7, 2021, 4:25 AM
(Pixabay Photo)
(Pixabay Photo)
PHOENIX — A former branch manager at Rio Rico bank was sentenced on Wednesday to 30 months for money laundering over multiple years, authorities said Friday.
A federal judge sentenced Carlos Antonio Vasquez, 41, of Nogales, Arizona, to 30 months for conspiring to launder money for a group of people “to conceal the illegal source of the funds,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona said in a press release.
The laundering took place between February 2017 and August 2019, and ultimately brought Mexican citizens into the bank where Vasquez would then set up accounts for them to illegally send money to Mexico.
In total, Vasquez authorized 42 wire transfers from funnel accounts to bank accounts in Mexico in the amount of $357,883, according to the release.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said after the bank accounts were set up, Mexican citizens were given money from the money laundering organization and were directed to wire the funds into Mexican bank accounts.
Vasquez admitted that the funnel bank accounts improved the bank’s sales performance and to knowing “that the funds moving through the accounts were proceeds of unlawful conduct.”
Authorities said that over the duration of the conspiracy, the money laundering organization allegedly transferred over $10 million in drug proceeds through banks.
