A routine back-office job at a Queens travel business turned into the backbone of a sprawling international money laundering operation tied to drug trafficking, federal prosecutors say.
According to the New York Post, Rui Fang Yu, a 40-year-old accountant from Flushing, was sentenced Monday to two years in federal prison for helping wash more than $20 million in illicit cash connected to the sale of heroin and cocaine.
The U.S. Department of Justice said Yu played a key role in a years-long scheme that ran from 2016 through 2020, funneling drug proceeds through an airline ticket business where she worked.
The money, prosecutors alleged, originated with a Mexican cartel-linked drug trafficking organization operating in the United States.
Investigators said Yu accepted large amounts of cash from co-conspirators who needed to move drug profits without attracting law enforcement attention. Using her position as an accountant at an “airline ticket consolidator” in Queens, she deposited the money into her employer’s bank accounts.
From there, prosecutors said, the funds were disguised through trade-based money laundering, masked as legitimate business transactions for airline ticket purchases.
Those transactions were allegedly phony, designed solely to make the drug cash appear clean.
Federal authorities said Yu and others then transferred the laundered funds to accounts controlled by co-conspirators in both the United States and China, further complicating the paper trail.
In August, Yu pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Her attorney, King L. Wu, urged the court to show leniency, arguing that Yu was a first-time offender and a legal permanent resident originally from Taishan, China. He asked for time served or probation instead of prison.
Yu, a mother of two who also helps care for her elderly parents, expressed remorse for her actions, her lawyer wrote.
“Her financial struggles intensified after the birth of her second child. With rising expenses and fewer hours at work, she became overwhelmed,” Wu said in a sentencing memo.
“In that period of vulnerability, she made the worst decision of her life. She agreed to deposit funds for others, telling herself it was a simple favor connected to business dealings,” he wrote.
“She did not control the money, did not direct anyone, and earned only small amounts for her efforts. She now understands how wrong it was and accepts responsibility for not saying no.”
Despite those arguments, the judge imposed a two-year prison sentence.
Yu also faces potential deportation to China and the loss of her green card following her conviction, according to the memo.
The case was jointly investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI, authorities said.
