#structured deposits

The owner of a Colorado car dealership and his two associates were arrested Tuesday by federal agents and local officers for structuring and money laundering. The defendants are accused of conspiring to launder drug proceeds.

Raul Mendoza, 48, Julia Castillo-Caraveo, 28, both of Denver, and Isidro Noe Mendoza-Ortiz, 25, of Thornton, appeared March 5 before a U.S. Magistrate judge, where they were advised of their rights, and the charges pending against them. All three are scheduled to appear in court on March 8 for a detention hearing and for arraignment.

In addition to the three arrests, agents and officers also executed search warrants at a residence and an automobile business. Twenty automobiles with clear titles from the car dealership were seized.

Their conspiracy was based on structured deposits, which simply means organizing deposits of just under $10,000.This is done to evade a federal law that requires all financial institutions to file a Currency Transaction Report (CTR) for currency transactions that exceed $10,000.

Chopeque Auto Sales, which is owned by Mendoza, sold automobiles to known drug dealers, prepared false documents relating to the sale of vehicles to known drug dealers, structured currency deposits to conceal the source, and falsely claimed to law enforcement authorities to be a valid lien holder of a seized vehicle in order to assist a known drug dealer in seeking the return of the vehicle.

Mendoza and Mendoza-Ortiz then conspired with each other and others to structure deposits for these sales with the intent to evade the reporting requirements as required by law. Daily cash receipts from Chopeque   were received at the business and structured into separate accounts at various banks to avoid the $10,000 reporting requirement. From Feb. 26, 2008 through May 29, 2012, they structured over 700 deposits totaling $4,543,714.

As part of the conspiracy, the defendants also to fail to file a Federal IRS Form 8300, a report required by law for all currency transactions over $10,000 received by a business.

Two owners of an online clothing business, along with one of their relatives, have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States of customs duties, mail fraud, structuring of cash transactions and money laundering.

Hoang Minh Nguyen, 32, Dung Hang Dao, 32, and Nga Thien Nguyen, 37, all of San Jose, were charged in a 23-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury last month.

According to court documents, between November 2008 and January 2013, Hoang Nguyen and Dao owned and operated several companies based in Patterson and San Jose that imported clothing and merchandise from China. When the companies received orders from customers, the two owners placed those orders with suppliers in China and had the goods sent directly to the United States. They declared the goods as samples, even though they intended to sell them to customers at retail value, thereby defrauding the United States of customs duties owed on the imported goods. The indictment alleges the companies collected more than $3 million in revenues from customers throughout the United States.

With the proceeds from their businesses, Hoang Nguyen and Dao sent significant amounts of cash to China via Western Union money transfers, breaking up the cash deposits into amounts of $10,000 or less in an attempt to prevent Western Union from filing reports on those currency transactions.

Marissa Tadeo Lapid, the wife of a sitting senator in the Philippines, has been sentenced to five months of home confinement and 36 months' probation after pleading guilty to charges of bulk cash smuggling.

Lapid, 55, is the wife of Philippines Senator Manuel "Lito" Lapid. She was sentenced on Feb. 4 by U.S. District Court Judge Lloyd D. George. Lapid previously pleaded guilty to two counts contained in a criminal information – bulk cash smuggling and conspiracy to structure transactions to evade reporting requirements.

Lapid originally came under suspicion in November 2010 when she failed to declare $40,000 in currency following her arrival at McCarran International Airport on a flight from the Philippines. According to court documents, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers subsequently found the money in Lapid's luggage inside two socks and a cloth bag concealed under the suitcase's lining.

HSI's subsequent investigation revealed that, from January 2009 through June 2010, Lapid conspired with others to make 23 cash deposits of under $10,000 at multiple banks in the Las Vegas area, often on the same day, knowing the banks were obligated to report cash transactions of more than $10,000. In all, the defendant structured $159,700 in deposits.