A federal judge in Chicago has sentenced Haiping Pan, a Chinese national, to ten years in prison for laundering $62 million in drug proceeds for Mexican traffickers. Between 2016 and 2018, Pan and his associates laundered up to $3 million monthly through secretive money pickups across the United States, followed by currency swaps between the U.S., China, and Mexico. The illegal funds were eventually returned to traffickers in Mexico.
Pan played a crucial role by using his financial expertise and connections with Mexican drug cartels to facilitate these transactions globally. During this period, he participated in laundering approximately $62 million through one or two weekly pickups ranging from $150,000 to $1 million each.
Living in Guadalajara, Mexico at the time of these activities, Pan was arrested there and extradited to the United States in 2022. U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman delivered the sentence during a hearing on Thursday.
The announcement came from Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Sean Fitzgerald, Special Agent-in-Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Chicago; and Ramsey E. Covington, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation Chicago Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard M. Rothblatt represented the government.
"The defendant was a significant part of a recent phenomenon in which a relatively small network of Chinese money brokers based in Mexico have come to dominate international money laundering markets," stated the government's sentencing memorandum. "Defendant’s crimes allowed his drug trafficking clients to secure the fruits of their pernicious trade faster, cheaper, and more securely than ever before."
Other individuals involved were also convicted as part of this federal investigation. Co-conspirators Xianbing Gan received a 14-year sentence while Huanxin Long was sentenced to five and a half years.