GREENVILLE, S.C. — A federal grand jury in Greenville returned a single-count indictment, presented by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, charging William Andres Holguin Mendez, 40, of Colombia, for his role in a $135 million money laundering conspiracy.
The indictment alleges that in August 2023, FBI agents began investigating individuals believed to be involved in the international laundering of drug proceeds in the Greenville area. Law enforcement identified numerous bank accounts associated with shell corporations that were receiving proceeds from the sale of illegal narcotics. These bank accounts would then, in turn, send the drug proceeds to a single account with a United States-based cryptocurrency exchange. Know Your Customer (KYC), a compliance process used by financial institutions to verify customer identities and assess risks, revealed that the sole owner of the accounts was Holguin Mendez. The investigation revealed that the drug proceeds in this account would be converted to stablecoin cryptocurrency before ultimately being moved to an account with a foreign-based cryptocurrency exchange. KYC information provided to the foreign-based cryptocurrency exchange also revealed that the sole owner of the account was Holguin Mendez. The investigation showed that the cryptocurrency in the foreign based cryptocurrency exchange account was then converted to Colombian pesos and distributed to 207 Colombian bank accounts. Approximately $135 million in United States dollars traveled through Holguin Mendez’s account from March 2023 to May 2024.
“The Homeland Security Task Force continues to disrupt drug money laundering organizations, as is alleged in the indictment of a $135 million scheme orchestrated by Holguin Mendez,” said U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling for the District of South Carolina. “Law enforcement will work together across domestic and international borders to trace illegal drug profits to investigate and prosecute narcotics dealers.”
“The defendant, as alleged in the indictment, backchanneled approximately $135 million of illegal drug proceeds tied to Upstate South Carolina,” said FBI Columbia Special Agent in Charge Anish Shukla. “The FBI, along with our HSTF partners, is on a continuous mission to identify, investigate, and prosecute every criminal involved in large-scale drug operations from the dealers to the money facilitators. We are committed to making our communities safe and removing the threat of cartels.”
Holguin Mendez faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison and is currently detained pending trial.
This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.
The case was investigated by the FBI Columbia Field Office, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Bondura is prosecuting the case. All charges in the indictment are merely accusations and defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.