Investor Is Found Guilty of Money Laundering
Jose Manuel de la Jara, who once ran a Santa Ana company that federal and state officials say was a major investment scam targeting Latino investors in Southern California, was found guilty Tuesday of two counts of money laundering.
The federal jury’s findings concluded two days of deliberations over a 12-count indictment charging de la Jara, a former Peruvian businessman, with laundering drug money.
On Monday, jurors had rendered a partial verdict, finding that de la Jara was guilty of five counts of currency structuring and not guilty of one count of money laundering.
The jury failed to reach a verdict on four pending counts of money laundering and currency structuring. The latter involves the alleged deposit of funds at various banks in order to avoid a requirement that cash transactions exceeding $10,000 be reported as prescribed by law. Prosecutors must decide by Monday if they are going to retry de la Jara on those four charges.
De la Jara, 44, could receive up to a 65-year prison sentence and be ordered to pay $1.75 million in fines. Sentencing is scheduled July 9.
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