Federal Jury Convicts Chinese National of Laundering Drug Proceeds on Behalf of Traffickers in Mexico

CHICAGO — A federal jury in Chicago has convicted a Chinese national of laundering illegal narcotics proceeds on behalf of drug traffickers in Mexico.

On three occasions in 2018, XIANBING GAN schemed to have narcotics proceeds totaling approximately $534,206 picked up in Chicago and transferred to various bank accounts in China, in order for the money to ultimately be remitted to drug traffickers in Mexico.  Gan is a Chinese national who facilitated the money transfers while residing in Guadalajara, Mexico.  Unbeknownst to Gan, a purported money courier who picked up the drug proceeds in Chicago was actually an undercover law enforcement agent.

U.S. authorities arrested Gan in November 2018 at Los Angeles International Airport during a brief layover on a flight from Hong Kong to Mexico.  He has remained in U.S. custody since then.

After a nearly two-week trial, a federal jury in Chicago on Thursday convicted Gan, 49, on three counts of money laundering and one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.  The jury acquitted Gan on one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Each money laundering count is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison, while the maximum sentence for the money transmission crime is five years.  U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin set sentencing for May 21, 2020.

The conviction was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; James M. Gibbons, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations in Chicago; and Kathy A. Enstrom, Special Agent-in-Charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division in Chicago.  The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard M. Rothblatt and Sean J.B. Franzblau.