{"id":18181,"date":"2015-12-11T11:13:28","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T19:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=18181"},"modified":"2015-12-11T11:15:26","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T19:15:26","slug":"16-indicted-for-money-laundering-in-from-the-now-closed-president-of-orange-county-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=18181","title":{"rendered":"16 Indicted For Money Laundering Narcotics Profits Through U.S.-Based Saigon National Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Federal authorities on Thursday arrested 11 defendants named in a sweeping racketeering indictment that alleges a series of money laundering schemes that revolved around the former head of the Westminster-based Saigon National Bank.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Saigon<\/a>Four other defendants who are named in two separate money laundering indictments were also arrested.<\/span><\/p>\n

The majority of the defendants arrested today in relation to Operation \u201cPhantom Bank\u201d are named in a 109-page racketeering indictment that was returned by a federal grand jury earlier this month and unsealed Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two other indictments returned by the grand jury over the past year were also unsealed today. The three indictments charge a total of 20 defendants, three of whom are named in two indictments.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 16-defendant racketeering indictment, six of the defendants are charged with violating the federal Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act or RICO by playing key roles in a series of schemes to launder drug proceeds.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the center of the schemes is the lead defendant in the indictment \u2013 Tu Chau \u201cBill\u201d Lu,<\/strong> 71, of Fullerton, who was president and CEO of Saigon National Bank from 2009 through January 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

The RICO count alleges that Lu and the other five defendants were members of a criminal organization that was involved in narcotics trafficking and international money laundering in countries that included the United States, China, Cambodia, Liechtenstein, Mexico and Switzerland.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The indictment alleges that Lu used \u201chis insider knowledge, position as an official at and network of connections to promote and facilitate money laundering transactions involving members and associates of the enterprise.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Several members of the organization established or engaged in separate money laundering schemes, according to the indictment, but \u201call working with, through, or at the instigation of defendant Lu,\u201d the indictment states.<\/span><\/p>\n

In one scheme, an undercover informant delivered cash represented to be drug proceeds to defendants, who arranged for the cash to be converted into cashier\u2019s checks made out to a company the informant allegedly owned.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other conspiracies discussed in the RICO count also involved the delivery of cash from the informant, and that money was allegedly converted into cashier\u2019s checks.<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of the racketeering enterprise, Lu and others named in the RICO count allegedly floated a plan in which the informant and his boss (who was an actually an undercover law enforcement officer) would purchase a controlling interest in Saigon National Bank so they could have a financial institution which could easily facilitate money laundering operations.<\/span><\/p>\n

In another aspect of the RICO conspiracy, Lu and others allegedly proposed setting up a foundation in Liechtenstein that would be used to move money around the globe. <\/span><\/p>\n

The informant and another associate who was also an undercover law enforcement officer told those proposing the creation of the foundation that they would be laundering money that came from drug sales in\u00a0<\/span>Europe and that the narcotics had been bartered for weapons in Nigeria.<\/span><\/p>\n

In yet another aspect of the RICO conspiracy, Lu allegedly played a critical role in introducing to the informant and other RICO defendants operatives from the Sinaloa drug cartel<\/strong> who wanted to launder millions of dollars every month.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the indictment, Lu also had conversations with the Sinaloa cartel operatives about purchasing Saigon National Bank, and one of the operatives said the cartel had already invested $1 million in the bank.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to Lu, the five people charged in the RICO count are the following defendants:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n