Man Indicted on Charges of Hiding Funds

The owner of a San Ysidro money exchange was jailed Tuesday after a federal grand jury indicted him on charges that he schemed to conceal nearly $15.8 million that passed through his business and was forwarded to New York, Miami and Zurich, Switzerland.

The 89-count indictment charges that Patrick E. Solorzano-Wizer, a resident legal alien who owns the Casa Blanca Money Exchange in San Ysidro, schemed to hide the funds from federal officials, misled authorities about the money and also failed to meet federal currency-reporting requirements.

Solorzano-Wizer pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Irma E. Gonzalez, and is being held without bail pending a bail-review hearing Friday.

The indictment comes at a time when federal authorities are investigating the possibility that millions of dollars in Mexican drug money is being legitimized--or “laundered”--through a series of financial transactions in currency exchanges and other financial institutions in San Ysidro and other border towns.

There is no mention of drugs in the indictment, which was unsealed Tuesday.

Federal law requires that financial institutions, including currency exchanges, provide the Internal Revenue Service with reports of each transaction of more than $10,000. The law, known as the Bank Secrecy Act, is used to ferret out drug dealers by tracking the movements of large amounts of cash.

The indictment alleges that Solorzano-Wizer received funds on 42 separate occasions between Feb. 5 and Oct. 21, 1985, and that he did not submit the required currency transaction forms. The indictment makes no mention of the source of the funds but claims that the money was transferred to unidentified “others” in New York, Miami and Zurich.

The 42 payments range in size from nearly $1.3 million to $63,825.

Solorzano-Wizer, whose age was listed as about 26, was arrested Tuesday and transferred to the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego, according to Barry Moskowitz, the assistant U.S. attorney in charge of the case. Officials from the U.S. Customs Service and the IRS are also involved in the case.

For some time, a federal grand jury here has been investigating allegations of money laundering along the border, according to law enforcement sources.

Moskowitz, however, declined to say whether this case was part of that probe or whether additional indictments are expected.

Each count alleged in the indictment carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail and a $250,000 fine, Moskowitz said.

The indictment charges that after receiving the money from unidentified sources, Solorzano-Wizer deposited the funds into accounts at Balboa National Bank and Crocker National Bank branches in San Ysidro.

No wrongdoing was alleged against the banks.

After depositing the funds, the indictment charges, Solorzano-Wizer would transfer the money to “others” in New York, Miami and Zurich. Solorzano-Wizer allegedly received a fee for this service, although the indictment didn’t disclose the amount.

Solorzano-Wizer’s attorney, Stephen Munkelt, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Officials at both Crocker and Balboa National declined to comment specifically on the indictments.

However, Michael Jones, president of Balboa National Bank, maintained that his bank has always complied with federal currency transaction reporting laws.

Last August, the Treasury Department fined Crocker $2.25 million for failing to meet currency-reporting requirements, making it the first major California bank to be so penalized. In recent months, federal authorities nationwide have been cracking down on banks that fail to report large transactions as part of an effort to reduce the laundering of criminal proceeds through financial institutions.