United States of America v. Nicholas Ortega Munoz

Newark, New Jersey, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business in violation for 18 U.S.C. 371, which provides:

18 U.S.C. § 371 is the general federal conspiracy statute, punishing two or more people who agree to commit a federal offense or defraud the United States (or its agencies) and take an overt act to further that plan. Violations carry up to 5 years in prison, with fines.
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Key Aspects of 18 U.S.C. § 371:

Two Prongs: The statute covers conspiracies to commit a federal crime ("offense clause") and conspiracies to defraud the government ("defraud clause").
Elements of the Crime: Prosecutors must prove:
Agreement: Two or more persons agreed to break a law or defraud the U.S..
Intent: Defendants intended to join the conspiracy and knew of its unlawful purpose.
Overt Act: At least one member of the conspiracy took an action to move the plan forward.
Defraud Clause: Specifically protects government functions from interference, such as tax evasion or trickery aimed at federal agencies.
Penalties: Up to 5 years in federal prison and fines. If the object of the conspiracy is a misdemeanor, the penalty is capped at that misdemeanor's maximum.
Pinkerton Liability: Under the Pinkerton doctrine, individuals can be held liable for crimes committed by their co-conspirators if those crimes were in furtherance of the conspiracy and reasonably foreseeable.
Statute of Limitations: Generally 5 years.

This statute is often used in white-collar cases to prosecute fraudulent acts against government programs, tax authorities, or in conjunction with other federal crimes.

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18 U.S.C. 1960 - Prohibition of unlicensed money transmitting businesses.

(a) Whoever knowingly conducts, controls, manages, supervises, directs, or owns all or part of an unlicensed money transmitting business, shall be fined in accordance with this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.
(b) As used in this section—
(1) the term “unlicensed money transmitting business” means a money transmitting business which affects interstate or foreign commerce in any manner or degree and
(A) is operated without an appropriate money transmitting license in a State where such operation is punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony under State law, whether or not the defendant knew that the operation was required to be licensed or that the operation was so punishable;
(B) fails to comply with the money transmitting business registration requirements under section 5330 of title 31, United States Code, or regulations prescribed under such section; or
(C) otherwise involves the transportation or transmission of funds that are known to the defendant to have been derived from a criminal offense or are intended to be used to promote or support unlawful activity;
(2) the term “money transmitting” includes transferring funds on behalf of the public by any and all means including but not limited to transfers within this country or to locations abroad by wire, check, draft, facsimile, or courier; and
(3) the term “State” means any State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Northern Mariana Islands, and any commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States.

Nicholas Ortega Munoz, 23, a Colombian national formerly of Hackensack, New Jersey, Valderrama Ospina, and others used a novel scheme to secretly move money from the United States to Colombia using two fake companies: BLK Graphics Group and Technology SD. The sham companies were built to serve as cash pipelines to move tens of millions of dollars to Latin America and avoid law enforcement detection. At no point were BLK or Technology SD ever appropriately registered as a money transmitting business, as FinCEN required them to be.

To carry out the scheme, BLK and Technology SD used a rotating stable of bank accounts at multiple financial institutions to funnel money deposited from pornographic websites and other entities to Latin America. For example, one website allowed online consumers to send “tokens” to pay adult performers for online performances. As part of the scheme, those “tokens” were then withdrawn from the websites and deposited into BLK and Technology SD bank accounts. Ortega Munoz, Valderrama Ospina, and others, then quickly directed the transfer of those funds to shell companies in Colombia. Between April 2021 and June 2025, BLK and Technology SD moved over $62 million in proceeds to accounts in Colombia.

The charges of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and operating and aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business each carry a statutory maximum prison sentence of five years and a statutory maximum fine of the greatest of $250,000, twice the gross amount of any pecuniary gain that any persons derived from the offense, or twice the gross amount of any pecuniary loss sustained by any victims of the offense, whichever is greatest. Sentencing for Mr. Ortega Munoz is scheduled for June 23, 2026. Sentencing for Ms. Valderrama Ospina is scheduled for June 25, 2026.

Senior Counsel Lamparello credited special agents of the FBI’s Newark Field Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Stefanie Roddy and investigators from the U.S. Attorney’s Office with the investigation leading to the guilty pleas.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert L. Toll of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Health Care Fraud & Opioids Enforcement Unit in Newark.

The Defendants elected to plead guilt.