VANCOUVER REALTOR SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS IN US FOR MONEY LAUNDERING

Omid Mashinchi

A real estate agent from British Columbia has been sentenced to two years in Federal Prison by a judge in US District Court in Boston. Omid Mashinchi, a dual Iranian-Canadian national who entered a guilty plea to five counts of money laundering, wired narcotics profits to banks in the State of Massachusetts, using his company's accounts. He was arrested earlier this year, when he entered the United States to visit relatives who reside in California. A $30,000 fine and one year of Supervised Release were also included in his sentence.

The realtor leased luxury condominium units to members of an organized crime syndicate known as the Wolf Pack gang. One of the gang's leaders, Gavinder Grewal, was assassinated in one of those properties last December. Some of the properties he leased were used as stash houses for narcotics. One house was targeted in a drive-by shooting in 2017. The Wolf Pack is also linked to other criminal organizations, the Hell's Angels, Red Scorpions and the Brothers Keepers.

Mashinchi was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in a case involving the gang's narcotics activities in Vancouver. He continued to lease out properties to gang members after he left a firm and surrendered his real estate license in 2016.