Colombian Gets 15 Years for Laundering Drug Money

Colombian drug money launderer Oscar Fernando Cuevas, regarded by the U.S. attorney’s office as “a primary leader of the largest and most proficient” such scheme ever prosecuted here, was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison.

Cuevas, 34, was found guilty by a Los Angeles federal court jury Sept. 12 on 15 counts of money laundering, conspiracy and aiding and abetting narcotics trafficking. Prosecutors presented evidence to show that he was directly responsible for laundering more than $20 million in drug money through Swiss and British banks.

They said that was “only a fraction” of the amount he actually moved back and forth between the United States, Europe and Colombia with a sophisticated courier system.

At the request of attorney Alan Ellis, U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real recommended that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons incarcerate Cuevas at the Federal Correctional Institute in Seagoville, Tex.

‘Rather Frail’

Ellis argued that because he is “rather frail,” Cuevas should be in a medium-security facility such as Seagoville--away from violent criminals--and in the southern part of the country where there is more understanding of Latinos.

Ellis told Real that Cuevas is “kind, charitable and viewed by many of his friends in Colombia as a brilliant economist.”

That was not quite the picture painted in a presentencing memorandum by Assistant U.S. Atty. Gordon A. Greenberg, who pointed out that Cuevas faced a possible 90 years in prison as well as a $2.55-million fine.

Greenberg said the defendant deserved a stiff penalty because of his “flagrant efforts” to thwart justice through such devices as a bogus Panamanian request that he be extradited to that country on a Panamanian citizen’s complaint that Cuevas had defrauded and threatened to murder him.

‘Mistaken Identity’

Greenberg wrote that it was not until after Cuevas was extradited here by the Swiss government that he suddenly produced papers to show that the Panamanian extradition request had been based on “mistaken identity” and actually involved a different Oscar Fernando Cuevas “who just happend to have the same Colombian passport number, age, place of birth and identical physical characteristics.”

Cuevas was the first alleged drug money launderer ever extradited by Switzerland to the United States, prosecutors said.

Asked after the sentencing if he was satisfied, Greenberg said simply: “I never comment on the judge’s decision.”