Wells Fargo Bank Personal Banker Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering and Bank Fraud
SAN DIEGO – Leopoldo Lara Aguilera, a former Wells Fargo personal banker, pleaded guilty in federal court today to money laundering conspiracy and bank fraud.
Aguilera was arrested by FBI agents on May 2, 2019, for his participation in an international money laundering organization based in Tijuana, Mexico which operated primarily in San Diego.
According to the plea agreement and other public records, Aguilera abused his position of trust as a personal banker with Wells Fargo Bank by opening bank accounts with false identities and wire transferring millions of dollars to Mexico. Aguilera conducted these transactions in exchange for thousands of dollars in cash payments from the criminal organization. The FBI’s investigation linked these funds to the sale of narcotics, specifically the sale of multi-kilogram amounts of fentanyl in the Midwest.
Aguilera pleaded guilty to opening twenty-six bank accounts for the money laundering organization, including eleven that were created by Aguilera using fictitious identities. Specifically, Aguilera used his position as a personal banker with Wells Fargo Bank to knowingly enter false names, passport numbers, and dates of birth on the fictitious bank accounts. These eleven fictitious accounts alone were used by the criminal organization to wire transfer a total of $3.8 million to Mexico, the vast majority of those wire transfers were conducted by Aguilera himself. Aguilera's use of these fictitious accounts were identified by Wells Fargo and brought to the attention of the FBI.
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/wells-fargo-bank-personal-banker-pleads-guilty-money-laundering-and-bank-fraud
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