A Lebanese man has been sentenced for his role in an international money laundering conspiracy. Andres Rached Farah, 55, a Lebanese citizen residing in Colombia, received a 52-month prison sentence from U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns. In August 2024, Farah pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering conspiracy and conducting substantive money laundering transactions.
Farah was among 20 individuals charged in a 50-count indictment in March 2022. He was arrested in Colombia in April 2022 and extradited to the United States by September 2023.
The investigation into the money laundering organization began in 2016 and continued until 2022. It focused on a group based primarily in Barranquilla, Colombia. An undercover agent infiltrated the organization by posing as an international money launderer capable of handling bulk cash globally, laundering it through U.S.-based accounts, and transferring it to Colombia.
The funds were transferred either through the Black Market Peso Exchange or business accounts designed to conceal their illegal origins. Members of the organization allegedly coordinated with the undercover agent to collect bulk cash worldwide and directed where it should be sent. Facilitators like Farah managed the payout of laundered proceeds in Colombia for drug suppliers' benefit.
Farah is responsible for laundering at least $591,000 from drug proceeds during the conspiracy period. He is the ninth defendant sentenced in this case, while four others have pleaded guilty and await sentencing. Two additional defendants have expressed their intent to plead guilty.
The announcement came from United States Attorney Joshua R. Levy; Stephen Belleau, Acting Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New England Field Division; and Jonathan Wlodyka, Acting Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in Boston.
The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section’s Office of Judicial Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota played crucial roles in securing Farah's arrest and extradition.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jared C. Dolan and Alathea E. Porter are prosecuting this case as part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation aimed at dismantling high-level criminal organizations threatening the United States using a multi-agency approach.
"The details contained in the charging document are allegations," officials stated, adding that "the remaining defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."