Former Virginia Attorney Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison for Laundering and Attempting to Launder Over $2 Million

A former Vienna, Virginia attorney was sentenced today to 84 months in prison for conspiring to launder over $2 million dollars derived from a business email compromise scheme and for attempting to launder funds he believed to be the proceeds of smuggling illegal aliens into the United States and trafficking firearms in Africa.

Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Tracy Doherty-McCormick of the Eastern District of Virginia and Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Lechleitner of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C., made the announcement after Ho was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema.

Raymond Juiwen Ho, 48, pleaded guilty on Oct. 19, 2017 to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of money laundering.  According to court documents, from at least March 2013 to February 2017, Ho engaged in a large-scale money laundering scheme that resulted in millions of dollars being moved through bank accounts (some of which were attorney trust accounts) that Ho or his co-conspirators controlled.  Specifically, between July and November 2014, Ho participated in a conspiracy in which co-conspirators sent emails from compromised or imitation accounts that duped victims into transferring money to accounts controlled by Ho and others.  Ho then laundered these stolen funds, moving them through and to accounts located in the United States and abroad.  Ho, who recruited others to aid his laundering activities, laundered over $2 million in unlawfully obtained funds.

Ho engaged in his money laundering business despite multiple instances of banks closing his accounts due to fraud and inquires by law enforcement.  Eventually, in November 2015, HSI initiated an operation in which undercover HSI agents sought Ho’s assistance in moving the proceeds of human smuggling and firearms trafficking between bank accounts located in the United States and overseas.  Ho engaged in four such transactions between December 2015 and June 2016, involving over $175,000 that he believed were the proceeds of the illegal smuggling and firearms trafficking activity.

Throughout the criminal conduct described above, Ho was a practicing attorney for an intellectual property law firm based in Washington, D.C.  As part of this case, he has surrendered his bar licenses from Georgia and the District of Columbia.

The investigation was conducted by HSI Washington, DC.  Senior Counsels Ryan K. Dickey and James S. Yoon of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander P. Berrang of the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney Kendrack D. Lewis and Former Trial Attorney Elizabeth Wright of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section investigated and prosecuted the case.  Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Nguyen and former Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph V. Longobardo provided assistance investigating the case.

NIJ Director's Corner Focuses on Officer Safety

Read NIJ Director David Muhlhausen's new Director's Corner message, "Improved Officer Safety in 2017 – and Beyond" at https://nij.gov/about/director/Pages/muhlhausen-improved-officer-safety-in-2017.aspx. In this article, Dr. Muhlhausen looks at NIJ's efforts in the areas of traffic safety; body armor and other equipment standards; and safety, health and wellness research.

Attorney General Sessions Announces DEA Surge to Combat Prescription Drug Diversion

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced yesterday that, over the next 45 days, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will surge Special Agents, Diversion Investigators, and Intelligence Research Specialists to focus on pharmacies and prescribers who are dispensing unusual or disproportionate amounts of drugs. To intensify the fight against prescription drug diversion, DEA will utilize data from approximately 80 million transaction reports it collects every year from prescription drug manufacturers and distributors. DEA will aggregate and analyze this data, which includes distribution figures and inventory of prescription drugs, to identify patterns, trends, and statistical outliers that can be developed into targeting packages.

“Our country is in the midst of a drug abuse crisis, enabled and worsened by rampant drug trafficking and prescription drug diversion,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “This surge of resources by the Drug Enforcement Administration will help us make more arrests, secure more convictions, and reduce the number of diverted or unnecessary prescription drugs causing addiction and overdose.”

The surge announced yesterday is the latest in a series of efforts by the Department of Justice to turn the tide of the opioid epidemic and reduce the inevitable violent crime that accompanies widespread drug trafficking. In August, the Department announced a new data analytics program, the Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit, which uses data to identify and prosecute individuals who are contributing to the opioid epidemic. The Department has also assigned experienced prosecutors to opioid hot spot districts to focus solely on investigating and prosecuting opioid-related health care fraud, and the DEA has reorganized its field divisions for the first time in nearly 20 years to increase its effectiveness nationwide.