MIAMI — A Venezuelan man who lived in Miami was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in federal prison for operating a vast international money-laundering network. The operation moved more than $1 billion through bank accounts, cryptocurrency wallets and shell companies, handling funds for drug traffickers and other illicit actors, according to federal prosecutors.

Jorge Figueira, 60, received the sentence from U.S. District Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. in Alexandria, Virginia, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. Figueira also agreed to a $1 billion money judgment, one of the largest financial penalties associated with a money-laundering prosecution involving a South Florida resident.

Federal investigators traced money flowing through four companies owned and operated by Figueira, whose network used cryptocurrency transactions and transfers between financial institutions to conceal the origins and destinations of funds.

Prosecutors said the operation served a wide range of illicit clients, including foreign drug-trafficking organizations. In court filings, they also linked funds moving through the network to individuals associated with the Houthi movement, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a sanctioned Russian oligarch, a sanctioned Russian bank and an Iranian oil broker.

Those connections were described in the government’s sentencing memorandum, which relied in part on blockchain analysis of cryptocurrency transactions. The filing also said Figueira acknowledged laundering proceeds from sanctioned Venezuelan oil companies.

The prosecution had requested a 15-year prison sentence, arguing that Figueira played a crucial role in moving enormous amounts of money for criminal organizations. His defense sought a substantially lighter punishment, portraying him as a first-time offender whose legitimate financial businesses had been swept into an investigation that exaggerated his culpability.

Alston imposed a 144-month sentence, three years below the prosecution’s recommendation. The judge also ordered three years of supervised release after Figueira completes his prison term.

How the operation worked

According to a statement of facts signed as part of Figueira’s guilty plea, the conspiracy operated from at least January 2024 through November 2025, using an elaborate combination of traditional banking and digital currencies to transfer funds between the United States and other countries.

Members of the network collected large amounts of cash from representatives of drug-trafficking organizations and used encrypted communications and coded language to arrange transactions.

To confirm that a courier was authorized to collect money, participants sometimes exchanged verification codes consisting of serial numbers taken from U.S. or foreign currency notes.

The money was then transferred through bank accounts, shell companies and cryptocurrency wallets, often moving rapidly between different accounts to conceal its source.

The network collected fees based on the amounts transferred.

Investigators identified more than $1 billion moving through financial accounts associated with Figueira’s companies. Prosecutors also traced a cryptocurrency wallet that had received more than $1 billion in Tether, a digital currency designed to maintain a value equivalent to the U.S. dollar.

The wallet sent out approximately the same amount and rarely maintained a substantial balance, according to court records.

Federal prosecutors said the operation moved funds to recipients in the United States and abroad, including Colombia, China, Panama and Mexico.

FBI infiltrates the network

The investigation began with another suspected international money launderer operating in Panama and Venezuela.

In October 2023, an FBI confidential source met that individual in Panama City, claiming to be involved in counterfeit merchandise and seeking someone who could clean the proceeds.

The intermediary said he could “clean it up easily,” according to the statement of facts.

Investigators subsequently arranged seven controlled transactions involving Figueira’s network, totaling $330,000.

In the first two operations, an undercover source delivered cash to an intermediary’s business in Colón, Panama. The money, minus a previously agreed fee, was later deposited into an FBI-controlled bank account from a company associated with Figueira.

A third operation involved a cash delivery in Miami, where the undercover source used a currency serial number as a verification code.

In later transactions, Figueira dealt directly with a confidential source, arranging for payments in Tether to cryptocurrency wallets. Within hours, corresponding dollar amounts were deposited into FBI-controlled accounts from companies he operated.

The fees charged during the controlled transactions ranged from less than 1% to 10%.

Investigators also met Figueira personally in Miami on two occasions, in September 2024 and February 2025.

According to prosecutors, Figueira acknowledged during conversations with an undercover source that some of the money he handled came from drug trafficking. He also suggested using coded language to distinguish drug proceeds from funds obtained through legitimate activities.

Defense disputes the scale

The amount of money attributed to Figueira became a central issue in the sentencing proceedings.

Prosecutors argued that more than $1 billion moved through his companies in patterns consistent with money laundering. They acknowledged that some funds might have originated from legitimate activities but said the money had been mixed with criminal proceeds.

Figueira’s lawyers disputed the government’s reliance on the total volume of transactions to calculate his punishment.

In a sentencing memorandum, defense attorney Arthur Louis Wallace III argued that the seven FBI-controlled transactions amounted to $330,000 and generated only $9,823.63 in fees for Figueira’s companies.

The defense said Figueira’s businesses were legally incorporated in Florida, maintained bank accounts, paid federal taxes and conducted documented transactions. His lawyers also argued that he had no previous criminal record and had cooperated with investigators.

They described him as a married father of two adult children who lived with his wife in a modest rental apartment in Miami, rather than enjoying the lavish lifestyle often associated with major international money launderers.

Prosecutors rejected the suggestion that the case involved merely routine financial transfers, pointing to the use of shell companies, coded communications, cryptocurrency wallets and repeated transactions designed to conceal the movement of money.

The court overruled Figueira’s objection to the pre-sentence report and determined that the federal sentencing guidelines called for life imprisonment. However, the offense carried a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years.

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