Money Exchanger Faces Charges of Laundering

The owner of a San Ysidro money exchange was indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday 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.

The 89-count indictment charged 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 innocent during an arraignment and was held without bail pending a hearing Friday.

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

The probe is focusing on how large amounts of cash, much of it belonging to narcotics dealers, is transferred from money exchanges on the border to U.S. banks without the required reporting to federal authorities.

Government prosecutors declined Tuesday to say whether this case was part of that probe.

The Bank Secrecy Act requires that financial institutions, including currency exchanges, report to the Internal Revenue Service cash transactions of more than $10,000.

According to the indictment, Solorzano-Wizer received funds from unnamed sources 42 times between Feb. 5 and Oct. 21, 1985, and did not submit the required currency transaction forms. The 42 payments ranged in size from nearly $1.3 million to $63,825.

The indictment charges that after receiving the money, 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 charged, 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 did not disclose the amount.

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

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.