A federal jury in Brooklyn has convicted Alain Bibliowicz Mitrani, a Miami resident with French and Colombian citizenship, on five counts related to a $300 million money laundering operation. The charges include money laundering conspiracy, bank fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Prosecutors said the scheme laundered drug proceeds through U.S. financial institutions for cartels and transnational criminal organizations, including the Sinaloa Cartel.
The trial lasted two weeks before United States District Judge Carol Bagley Amon. When sentenced, Bibliowicz Mitrani faces up to 70 years in prison.
Joseph Nocella, Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Ricky J. Patel, Special Agent in Charge at Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), New York; and Harry T. Chavis, Jr., Special Agent in Charge at Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), New York, announced the verdict.
“With today’s verdict, the defendant’s prolific money laundering of drug proceeds is all washed up,” stated United States Attorney Nocella. “The defendant and his co-conspirators converted illicit proceeds in the form of cryptocurrency from drug cartels in Colombia and Mexico into dirty cash using a series of bank accounts and complex financial transactions, here and abroad. Then he sent this dirty money back to the drug traffickers, fueling their criminal enterprises while enriching himself with hefty fees he charged for his laundering. But thanks to the excellent work of our prosecutors and law enforcement partners, the defendant’s operation has been shut down, and the only laundering he will be handling in the future will be in a federal prison laundromat.”
Nocella also thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York Field Office for its assistance.
“The defendant’s $300 million money laundering empire fueled untold violence and chaos on behalf of the world’s most dangerous criminal organizations. Our message to money launderers is clear: if you think you can bankroll drug cartels and criminal enterprises from the shadows, we will find you, expose you, and shut you down,” said HSI New York Special Agent in Charge Patel. “We’re working relentlessly every day with our partners to trace illicit funds and dismantle transnational criminal networks.”
“Bibliowicz Mitrani is complicit in moving more than a quarter billion dollars in drug money through shell companies to locations around the world. In serving his criminal clientele with his dirty money-washing business, he lived a rich lifestyle with a multi-million-dollar mansion and lavish purchases. IRS-CI follows all money, even when it is dirty, and there is no hiding it from our expert investigators. Today’s conviction is a good reminder of that,” stated IRS-CI New York Special Agent in Charge Chavis.
Evidence presented at trial showed that between 2020 and 2024 Bibliowicz Mitrani led a scheme using Treebu—a company posing as a legitimate technology firm—as cover for international money laundering activities based out of Florida and Colombia.
Authorities described how major narcotics trafficking organizations generate billions annually that must be repatriated back home using operations like Treebu as intermediaries for commission fees.
Bibliowicz Mitrani established shell companies to open bank accounts that transmitted illegal proceeds while misrepresenting their purpose to U.S. banks. He did not register as required under state or federal law as a money transmitter business.
Profits funded personal expenses such as luxury jewelry purchases from Van Cleef & Arpels; payments toward an approximately $4 million Miami mansion; luxury travel; including over $16,000 spent on hotels abroad during April 2023.
This prosecution forms part of Operation Take Back America—an initiative by the Department of Justice combining resources from various task forces aimed at combating illegal immigration-related crime networks including those involved with organized narcotics trafficking.
Assistant United States Attorneys Adam Amir, Lorena Michelen, David Berman prosecuted this case alongside Paralegal Specialists Zoubida Bicane and Tareva Torres.
ALAIN BIBLIOWICZ MITRANI
Age: 51
Miami, Florida
E.D.N.Y Docket No.: 25-CR-39 (CBA)
