Former Paraguay Congress Member Sentenced for International Money Laundering Conspiracy

Cynthia Elizabeth Tarrago Diaz, once a member of Paraguay’s Congress, was sentenced to prison for her role in an international money laundering scheme, the U.S. Department of Justice reported Thursday (March 24).

Diaz, 42, pleaded guilty for conspiracy to commit money laundering. She faces 33 months in jail. Her husband, Raimundo Va, 46, also pleaded to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. He is scheduled to be sentenced in April.

The couple was arrested by the FBI in New Jersey in 2019 as part of their unlawful money laundering activities, according to the complaint.

Until January 2019, Tarrago was a member of Paraguay’s Congress. While in office, the pair agreed to accept at least $2 million from two persons who pretended to be narcotics traffickers, court documents said.

Investigators said the money came from narcotics trafficking and the funds would be laundered through an international network of accounts to disguise the source of the proceeds.

Tarrago and Va later traveled to New Jersey and Florida and accepted $800,000 from the alleged drug traffickers, the complaint said. They then allegedly laundered the cash through the conspiracy’s network and transferred it to an account maintained by the purported drug traffickers.

But unknown to Tarrago and Va, the money they laundered was not the illicit drug proceeds. Instead, it was provided to them by undercover FBI agents as part of an investigation of the money laundering network.

Also, on Thursday (March 24), two defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection to a non-fungible token (NFT) scheme.

Read more: 2 Charged with Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud, Money Laundering Over Frosties NFT Scheme

The million-dollar scheme defrauded those who bought certain NFTs. Ethan Nguyen and Andre Llacuna were charged with failing to provide the benefits to those who purchased the NFTs, as the pair reportedly transferred the scheme’s crypto proceeds to various crypto wallets they controlled.