Braintree Man Guilty In Money Laundering Conspiracy Case

BOSTON, MA — A Braintree man pleaded guilty in connection with an elaborate money laundering conspiracy recently.

Chengzou Liu, 36, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering as well as possession with intent to distribute marijuana. U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani scheduled sentencing for April 24, 2024.

In July 2022, Liu was charged along with seven others in connection with "elaborate money laundering and money transmitting conspiracies allegedly led by two of Liu’s co-conspirators Qiu Mei Zeng and Shi Rong Zhang," officials said.

According to the charging documents, Zeng and Zhang co-owned China Gourmet, a restaurant in Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood. Zhang was also a registered owner of Wonderful Electronics, an electronics and restaurant supply business based in Hanover.

It is alleged that the defendants used these businesses to run a large-scale money laundering and money-transmitting operation that involved the laundering of drug proceeds and proceeds from stolen or fraudulent gift cards.

Officials said Liu was a large-scale marijuana trafficker who laundered his drug proceeds through China Gourmet.

"On at least three occasions, Liu was observed delivering bags of cash that contained tens of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds to the restaurant, which then wired to accounts in the U.S. and China," officials said.

Specifically, it is alleged that Liu delivered the bags of cash to Zeng, who then sent electronic transfers of these funds to various accounts in China provided by Liu.

Liu could face up to 20 years in prison on both counts, in addition to fines and supervised release after his sentence his prison sentence is finished.