Three Israelis Plead Guilty to Laundering Drug Profits

Three Israeli nationals entered guilty pleas Friday to charges that they laundered more than $2 million in illegal narcotics profits.

Avraham Zarchia, 38, and Izhak Edri of North Hollywood each face a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison and fines of $1.25 million.

The third defendant, Rivka Edri, Izhak Edri’s wife, pleaded guilty and was immediately sentenced to five years’ probation.

The ring allegedly laundered as much as $22 million in five months last year by shipping cashier’s checks to a Panamanian financial institution linked to a Colombian drug organization, Assistant U.S. Atty. Bonnie S. Klapper said.

The pleas--to charges of illegal movement of cash in and out of the United States--were accepted by U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts in the federal courthouse in Santa Ana.

Rivka Edri was shown leniency because she has four children, said Stanley Greenberg, her attorney. Greenberg said he believes that his client is innocent and would have been acquitted had she gone to trial. Greenberg said she entered her plea against his advice.

“She knew what was going on, but to some extent, she was the victim of her husband,” Klapper said.

Under Letts’ sentence, Rivka Edri will be placed under supervised probation in the United States for four months to allow her children to finish the school year. After that, she must leave the United States. Greenberg said she will return to Israel.

The defendants admitted participating in a ring that moved large volumes of cashier’s checks made out in amounts less than $10,000 to avoid government reporting requirements.

Whenever cash transactions of $10,000 or more occur, banks are required to report to the Internal Revenue Service.

The law also bars “structuring” transactions, such as transfers of large sums through a series of smaller transactions, to avoid the reporting requirements. The law was designed to curb money laundering and other activities involving concealment of funds from government scrutiny, Klapper said.

Prosecutors alleged that the ring attempted to send $1,271,510 to Panama via courier services over five days, all in the form of dozens of checks for less than $10,000 each.

Edri and Zarchia are scheduled to be sentenced April 29.