The news from United States District Court in Los Angeles this week is the guilty plea, to money laundering charges involving millions of dollars in a cryptocurrency scam, of Chinese national DAREN LI, a/k/a DEVON, who is the latest in a very long list of Chinese career criminals who were sold illegally-issued Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) passports from Saint Kitts & Nevis, by a Chinese-controlled company, and went on to use that SKN passport to commit transnational crime against American citizens, as part of a global network of investment fraudsters. He faces a maximum twenty year sentence in Federal Prison for money laundering.
Li, who employed shell companies in the United States to launder victim proceeds, in furtherance of his crew's criminal operation, and who was arrested when he entered the United States, conducted most of his fraud from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he purchased his Saint Kitts passport from one of a number of dodgy companies engaged in the illicit sale of illegally-discounted CBI passports to Chinese nationals, without any due diligence being conducted upon his suitability as an applicant. The sale of such passports to him by the Dubai company constitutes a crime under Saint Kitts laws, meaning that the owners and operators of such entities could face prison sentences themselves.
Compliance officers kindly note that it is reported that USD$58m in the case was seized by the Secret Service from Bahamas-based DELTEC BANK,as part of Li's criminal proceeds.
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