The company's CFO even had to address the Zhenli Ye Gon incident specifically during a quarterly conference call with investors. By early 2007, Ye Gon was ‘the largest all-cash, up-front gambler the Venetian-Palazzo had ever had,’ the DOJ said. The U.S. prosecutor reported that "the [U.S.] government was told that the samples from the first two intermediate shipments sampled had been used up in the laboratory analysis." Somewhere along the way, Mr. Ye Gon allegedly began re-directing a portion of his imports from legitimate businesses to the Sinola drug cartel. Back in the 1996 , Zhenli Ye Gon … In March 2007, authorities raided the home of Zhenli Ye Gon, a pharmaceuticals magnate based in Mexico City. In March 2007, authorities raided the home of Zhenli Ye Gon, a pharmaceuticals magnate based in Mexico City. Two Chinese citizens (Yen Yongging and Fu Huaxin) were apprehended along with others[13] on July 23, 2007. [4][5], In 2007, Zhenli Ye Gon was indicted in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia with a single count of conspiracy to aid and abet the manufacture of 500 grams or more of methamphetamine, knowing or intending that it would be imported into the United States. © 2021 Celebrity Net Worth / All Rights Reserved. After securing the property, the agents proceeded to check the residence room by room. At a hearing on the same day, prosecutors admitted that one of their key witnesses had recanted. What I'm saying is that there's other kinds of testimony. [15] 2012, two brothers of Ye Gon, who had been arrested shortly after the initial seizures in 2007, were also ordered released from custody by the Mexican courts. In March 2010, Ye Gon retained the services of lawyer Gregory S. [26], United States District Court for the District of Columbia, "Mexico, the DEA, and the Case of Zhenli Ye Gon", US extradites Mexican-Chinese businessman Zhenli Ye Gon. – Largest Drug Cash Seizure Ever, Meet El Mencho, Latin America's Most Powerful And Dangerous Drug Lord, Billionaire Drug Lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, AKA The World's Most Wanted Fugitive, Finally Captured At Mexican Beach Resort, Former President Of Mexico Allegedly Took $100 Million Bribe From El Chapo, Rags to riches? Nevertheless, after Unimed's license to import pseudoephedrine and ephedrine products ended on July 1, 2005, it was alleged that Ye Gon and certain employees of his violated the law by continuing to import four unauthorized containers of pseudoephedrine or ephedrine precursor chemicals into Mexico in late 2005 and 2006. The money had been deposited in the Sands-operated Venetian-Palazzo casino by Zhenli Ye Gon, 50, a Shanghai-born high-stakes gambler who became a Mexican citizen in 2002. Pursuant to this $1.1 billion announced Mérida Initiative, the Bush Administration eventually requested $500 million for Mexico in supplemental FY2008 appropriations, plus another $450 million for Mexico in its FY2009 budget request. A raid on Zhenli's home found guns and cash along with evidence showing he banked with HSBC and had been for many years. 1 ("Altiplano") to provide him with "better" prison conditions. Ye Gon's name also came up in a money laundering investigation involving HSBC. My first reaction was to just pretend the money didn't exist all weekend. Zhenli Ye Gon told The Associated Press that most of the money belonged to Mexico’s ruling party. His story will absolutely blow your mind. Only 4 of Unimed's 291 imported shipments (from Canada, China, England, Germany, Israel, Hong Kong and the United States) into Mexico have ever been questioned. Ye Gon's name has also been referenced in connection with subsequent money laundering investigations, including one involving Las Vegas Sands. The casinos showered him with comped rooms, private jets, meals, cars, girls… we're talking comps that are beyond mortal imagination. Oh, and he also admitted that the total amount of dirty money he was "forced" to babysit was actually closer to $350 million. Columbia is still notorious as the drug capital of the world. The money that the Sands agreed to pay the government represents the amount it received from Zhenli Ye Gon, a Chinese businessman with a … In 2007, authorities seized US $205 million in cash as well as other assets from the Mexico City home of Chinese-Mexican businessman Zhenli Ye … More than a few Mexican would like to know what happened to the 205 million dollars (in US dollars, Euros and Mexican pesos) seized from Mexican-Chinese businessman Zhenli Ye Gon. Ye Gon was arrested in 2007 on suspicion of moving chemicals across the border with the intent of turning them into meth. He also does not dispute that he gambled away $125 million in Las Vegas. Years after a $207 million cash seizure in Mexico, case lands in Roanoke. As of September 2013, he is still fighting extradition to Mexico. Lozano was at that time Secretary of Labor when he was accused. Man linked to $207 million cash seizure arrested in U.S. "WTOP: Washington, DC's Top News, Traffic, and Weather", "La Operación Dragón pone al descubierto red de narcos y traficantes de personas - La Jornada", "¿El policía chino..? Zhenli Ye Gon, a Chinese-Mexican businessman suspected of providing Chinese chemicals to Mexican drug cartels and being involved in money laundering since 2005, asked authorities at the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1 ("Altiplano") to provide him with "better" prison conditions. He was soon after arrested for allegedly contributing to the Mexican drug trade. In July 2007, the U.S. government filed an indictment charging that the importation of these four shipments into Mexico was part of a conspiracy to aid and abet the importation of methamphetamine into the United States. So I can only imagine what it must feel like to gamble away tens of thousands, or even a hundred thousand dollars in Vegas. Yong Ping was found guilty of producing of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, ephedrine acetate and n-acetylmethamphetamine, precursor drugs used to manufacture methamphetamine – or crystal meth … The Mérida Initiative involved a multi-year plan in which the U.S. would provide significant financial assistance to the Mexican government, plus smaller amounts to other Latin American countries, to help them combat drug trafficking and other organizations. They also noted how none of the four challenged shipments were listed as containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine precursors, and that Mexico's government-approved chemist assigned to Unimed, Bernardo Mercado Jiminez, stated under oath that he did not know that the imported substances were prohibited under Mexican law, and that he advised Ye Gon, who is not a chemist, that the imported substances were legal chemicals not controlled or restricted under Mexican law. Which is particularly crazy when you consider that he doesn't dispute the allegation that he earned $350 million over a three year period while running Unimed. Zhenli Ye Gon told The Associated Press that most of the money belonged to Mexico’s ruling party. In his habeas petition, Ye Gon has argued that in light of the U.S. case's dismissal, his extradition is barred by principles of international double jeopardy (non bis in idem). He may never have touched the drugs, but he made it all possible, facilitating the massive meth trade by brokering chemicals … With the consent of Mexican officials, this large quantity of pseudoephedrine products was sold in compliance with the Mexican government's directions. In March 2007, the Mexican government entered Ye Gon's home and seized hundreds of millions of dollars in cash. The losses and fines were so large that they caused shares in Las Vegas Sands to plummet. The story of the largest drug cash seizure of all time involves a 44 year old Chinese businessman named Zhenli Ye Gon. For a while, Zhenli was by far and away the largest all-cash-upfront gambler in the history of Las Vegas and thanks to these unprecedented losses, the casinos treated him like a God. In light of Government admissions that "Mexico has not set out to prove ... That Ye Gon mass produced methamphetamine itself," Ye Gon has also claimed that extradition is improper under the legal requirement of dual criminality (since the alleged precursor chemicals imported into Mexico are not controlled substances in the U.S.), and other barriers. In total, the mountain was made up of $207 million in mostly US hundred dollar bills. However, he is still fighting the government to not be extradited to Mexico where drug trafficking laws are slightly looser. The sum represents funds accepted by Sands on behalf of Zhenli Ye Gon, a native of China who is currently being held in the U.S. pending extradition to Mexico on … Yong Qing worked as part of a methamphetamine trafficking organization run by his cousin, Zhenli Ye Gon. [6] His criminal defense attorneys, Manuel J. Retureta, of Retureta & Wassem, PLLC,[8] and A. Eduardo Balarezo[9] vigorously litigated this Brady issue before the Honorable Emmet G. Sullivan. They were making money hand over fist off one of the biggest whales in gambling history. Yong Qing was Ye Gon’s business partner in a company established in Toluca with money from criminal activities, reported Proceso. Zhenli Ye Gon moved from Shanghai to Mexico in 1996 to work in the import/export business. In 2007, for example, hundreds of millions of dollars were seized in one of the properties belonging to Chinese-Mexican businessman, Zhenli Ye Gon, following a money laundering investigation. could either make enough money to … Defense lawyers in Ye Gon's U.S. criminal case asked to view all of these seized materials, but they were never produced in the U.S. by Mexican officials. According to the evidence gathered by the DOJ, Ye Gon allegedly took steps to actively avoid detection of money … Samples taken from the four challenged shipments by Mexican officials were never turned over to U.S. authorities for independent testing, as Ye Gon's U.S. defense counsel had requested. The petition also notes how many of Mexico's allegations of wrongdoing underlying the extradition request come from statements made by disgruntled and/or fired former employees of Unimed, and that the Mexican arrest warrant's listed "main accomplice" of Ye Gon has since recanted. Another suspected member of the organization, Fu Huaxin, was absolved of similar charges. More than a few Mexican would like to know what happened to the 205 million dollars (in US dollars, Euros and Mexican pesos) seized from Mexican-Chinese businessman Zhenli Ye Gon. When he reached the US, Zhenli claimed he was forced to hold on to the $207 million by a Cabinet member of Mexico's then President Filipe Calderon. On February 9, 2011, Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola certified Ye Gon's extraditability to Mexico to face charges there.[12]. He became a citizen of Mexico in 2002 and was recognized as a wealthy business owner in Mexico before these allegations of wrongdoing arose. In the past, Mexican drug cartels faced enormous cash seizures. Prior to the Mexican government's enforcement actions, Ye Gon was openly building a state-of-the-art pharmaceutical plant in Toluca, Mexico, and in his federal court proceedings, the U.S. prosecutor referred to Ye Gon as "a very sophisticated businessman.". Zhenli Ye Gon. The Insane Story Behind The Largest Drug Cash Seizure Of All Time – $226 Million Found In A Bedroom, How Much Money Does A Drug Kingpin Make? [2]. He proceeded to not only blow the entire $45 million, but an additional $35 million he received on credit from the casino. At his house in the plush suburb of Lomas de … “We all had saw the images. It turns out that between 2004 and the raid in Mexico in 2007, Zhenli gambled away just over $125 million in cash mainly at The Venetian (which is owned by Las Vegas Sands corp). Many seized contents of Ye Gon's home, located in Mexico City's suburb of Lomas de Chapultepec, were subsequently auctioned off by Mexican officials. He is the owner and legal representative of Unimed Pharm Chem México, as well as various other Mexican corporations. A Mexican federal court has sentenced Ye Yong Ping, the cousin of alleged drug kingpin Zhenli Ye Gon, to 25 years of imprisonment for money laundering and manufacturing methamphetamine. After his initial examination in Mexican custody, Ye Gon's lawyer Rogelio de la Garza stated on October 21, 2016 that his client was calm and looking forward to demonstrating that there was nothing illegal about the money found at his home. Throughout it all, Zhenli has maintained his innocence. As a result of the efforts of Messrs. Retureta and Balarezo, all charges brought against Ye Gon by the government of the United States were dismissed with prejudice on August 28, 2009. He was betting so much money that the casinos were taking a risk by letting him play at their tables. [17] He was arrested without incident at a restaurant in Wheaton, Maryland on July 24, 2007.[18]. ", Ye Gon was scheduled to go to trial on his U.S. charge in September 2009. And, not surprisingly, by the end of the weekend, I had blown through the entire refund. Zhenli Ye Gon was actually not at the house when the raid went down and when he found out what happened he fled north, to The United States, of all places. we all remember when they arrested the Chinese-Mexican citizen, how they had us, like a week, with that, or fifteen days. https://cavemancircus.com/2020/11/03/5-biggest-gambling-losers-of-all-time Low and behold, when they opened the door to a back bedroom, agents were shocked to discover a mountain of neatly stacked money three feet high and six feet wide. Unfortunately, after the raid in Mexico city, not only did the money stop flowing but Zhenli refused to pay back the $35 million marker he had been given. I was depressed about it for weeks and the experience made me sort of hate Vegas ever since. "La PGR incinera productos incautados a Ye Gon", "Federal Judge Dismisses Ye Gon Case With Prejudice", "U.S. Court Approves Zhenli Ye Gon's Extradition to Mexico", "Milenio: Últimas Noticias de México - Actualidad global - Grupo Milenio". This caused increased scrutiny which showed itself at the HSBC branch in West Virginia. To make matters worse, earlier this week the US government fined the Las Vegas Sands $47.4 million for not reporting Zhenli's suspicious transactions. In total, Zhenli lost $85 million at the Venetian and another $40 million at a small handful of nearby casinos. Two Mexican Federal agents who were involved in the arrests at the Zhenli Ye Gon mansion were found dead in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, as reported on August 2, 2007. Zhenli Ye Gon is currently accused of money laundering and is … Accused: The money transfers were made by Chinese-Mexican businessman Zhenli Ye Gon, pictured Ye Gon wire transferred money to the casino from banks and money exchange houses in … The money being paid the United States represents money sent to the Venetian casino by or on behalf of Zhenli Ye Gon, who at the end of 2006 or early 2007 was “the largest all-cash, up-front gambler the Venetian-Palazzo had ever had to that point,” according to the non-prosecution agreement. He Just Died The Biggest Casino Tycoon On The Planet. The story of the largest drug cash seizure of all time involves a 44 year old Chinese businessman named Zhenli Ye Gon. Diaz's boss at the time, Noe Ramirez Mandujano - who served as the head of Mexico's national organized crime unit - was himself later criminally charged and jailed in November 2008, after allegedly receiving $500,000 in exchange for providing sensitive information to drug cartels in Mexico. Two years later, the U.S. case was dismissed with prejudice by The United States District Court for the District of Columbia, in August 2009. During the auction, the government obtained MXN $181 million and Zhenli Ye Gon didn't try to prevent the auction. For two years, the Justice Department gathered evidence showing that Chinese-Mexican businessman Zhenli Ye Gon had deposited $45 million in suspected drug money to … For a while, this was a great deal for the casinos. [1] In more than six years since the original seizures and arrests, no person affiliated with any of these events has yet been convicted of any crime, either in the U.S. or in Mexico. U.S. prosecutors reported that the seized cash had not been retained by Mexican officials as evidence, but instead had been counted and deposited into bank accounts. That house was owned by a businessman named Zhenli Ye Gon. Audits conducted by Mexican officials between 2002-06 at Unimed showed no improprieties such as improper diversion of any such chemicals. Every casino is obligated to alert American authorities to any suspicious transactions that may involve illicit money. Federal agents arrested him in a Wheaton, Maryland restaurant on July 23, 2007. Zhenli Ye Gon, 53, was arrested in the U.S. in July 2007 after police found piles of cash hidden throughout his Mexico City mansion, totaling $205 million. The court determined that the charges he faced in the U.S. before his extradition to Mexico in 2016 were different than the ones he encounters in Mexico, thus eliminating double jeopardy. Believe it or not, that's exactly what Chinese-Mexican meth-chemical kingpin Zhenli Ye Gon managed to do between 2004 and 2007. Felipe Calderon denied connection with the money and said it was invention by Ye Gon to avoid prosecution. However Ye Gon asserts that he was forced by Javier Lozano Alarcón, Secretariat of Labor and Social Welfare, to keep it at his home, and that this money would be used during Felipe Calderón's presidential campaign in 2006. Zhenli Ye Gon, a Chinese-Mexican businessman suspected of providing Chinese chemicals to Mexican drug cartels and being involved in money laundering since 2005, asked authorities at the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. Zhenli Ye Gon is currently accused of money laundering and is … Later, on October 22, 2007, the U.S. and Mexico jointly announced their "Merida Initiative," named after this city where both Presidents had met. He said he would sue Zhenli Ye Gon. No word on whether or not he's allowed to show his face at any casino on the planet ever again. [21] Ye Gon was not among the persons who had been arrested by these agents several months before, however, and no charges have ever been filed suggesting any link whatsoever between their deaths and Ye Gon. Zhenli Ye Gon’s home in the affluent Bosques de las Lomas neighborhood was seized by federal authorities in 2007. Zhenli Ye Gon was arrested in 2007 with more than US $200 million in cash. According to Ye Gon, that bed of money that was exhibited in public was for the campaign of then President of Mexico, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, accused by López Obrador of having stolen the presidential election of 2006. “With the arrest of Zhenli Ye Gon, we’ve apprehended not only the man behind the money, but the man behind the meth. [13] Other individuals affiliated with his companies and the challenged importations were also arrested. Discuss Settlement in Money-Laundering Probe", "Mexico accuses drug suspect of blackmail", "Zhenli Ye Gon confía en su inocencia: Abogado", "In Tale of Millionaire Drug Suspect, Mexicans Judge Government Guilty", One ton of cash (Article in German language: Eine Tonne Cash), Cartel: The Coming Invasion of Mexico's Drug Wars, El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency, Manhunt of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán (2001–2014), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zhenli_Ye_Gon&oldid=1005359080, Articles containing Chinese-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, A great amount of jewels, of unknown value, Two Mexican-style dwellings of approximately 20 million pesos, This page was last edited on 7 February 2021, at 07:41. He's no stranger to money laundering scandals, though. And while that may not seem like a lot to a massive casino corporation, the losses were actually a large enough to wipe out all executive bonuses at the Venetian for 2007. Mexican federal authorities denied a writ of amparo issued by Zhenli Ye Gon, a Chinese-Mexican businessman suspected of providing Chinese chemicals to Mexican drug cartels and being involved in money laundering since 2005. / 11 de Febrero de 2008", "Alleged drug trafficker jailed in U.S. - USATODAY.com", Busca Interpol en 180 países a "Midas" por decomiso millonario, "Las Vegas Sands, U.S. Chinese-Mexican drug kingpin Zhenli Ye Gon blew away $125 million in a handful of Vegas casinos between 2004 and 2007. Earlier this week, The Las Vegas Sands corporation was fined $47.4 million by the US Attorney's office for failing to alert authorities to Zhenli Ye Gon's very suspicious gambling activities. Sands attorneys have reportedly defended against these allegations by noting how Sands had conducted due diligence on Ye Gon, and concluded that his funds sent to the casino were not laundered, after sending a private investigator and company employee down to Mexico to confirm that Ye Gon was a legitimate businessman.[22]. Submit a correction suggestion and help us fix it! I literally found out about the direct deposit as I was on interstate 15, roughly halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The cartel then used these precursor chemicals to manufacture massive quantities of crystal meth which were then shipped to the US. The money being paid the United States represents money sent to the Venetian casino by or on behalf of Zhenli Ye Gon, who at the end of 2006 or early 2007 was “the largest all-cash, up-front gambler the Venetian-Palazzo had ever had to that point,” according to the non-prosecution agreement.
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