Former Vienna Lawyer Laundered $2M: Prosecutors

VIENNA, VA—A former lawyer from Vienna has been sentenced to seven years in prison for over $2 million in money laundering.

According to court documents, Raymond Juiwen Ho, 48, and co-conspirators duped victims into transferring money into accounts controlled by him and others through an email scheme between July and November 2014. Ho laundered the money through accounts in the U.S. and abroad, some through attorney trust accounts.

With more than $2 million unlawfully transferred in this large-scale scheme, Ho often saw his accounts being closed to due fraud and law enforcement investigations. At one point, Homeland Security Investigations went undercover and got him to launder proceeds they claimed were from human and firearms smuggling. These transactions between December 2015 and June 2016 totaled more than $175,000.

Throughout the scheme, Ho was a practicing attorney for an intellectual property law firm in Washington, D.C. He has surrendered his licenses to practice law in DC and Georgia.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations special agents investigated the case.

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