Source: United States Attorneys General
Headline: Former Attorney Sentenced to Prison for Money Laundering
**Video entered into the public record at sentencing will be available at: https://www.dvidshub.net/ice
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A former attorney was sentenced today to seven years 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.
According to court documents, from at least March 2013 to February 2017, Raymond Juiwen Ho, 48, of Vienna, 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 inquiries by law enforcement. Eventually, in November 2015, Homeland Security Investigations (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 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.
Tracy Doherty-McCormick, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, John P. Cronan, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and Patrick J. Lechleitner, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) HSI Washington, D.C., made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander P. Berrang, Senior Counsels Ryan K. Dickey and James S. Yoon of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, and Trial Attorney Kendrack D. Lewis and Former Trial Attorney Elizabeth Wright of the Justice Department’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.
A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information is located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:17-cr-215.