Colombia-based broker sentenced to 160 months for laundering $14.5M in USDT

Leonardo de Jesus Zuluaga Duque, known as Rey, must also forfeit $14.75 million and crypto held in four addresses he controlled A Colombia-based crypto broker is headed to a US federal prison for 160 months. That works out to a little over 13 years, for moving drug money through one of the most widely used stablecoins in the world. Leonardo de Jesus Zuluaga Duque, who went by the nickname “Rey,” was sentenced on October 21, 2026, in a US District Court. Prosecutors tied him to the laundering of approximately $14.5 million in USDT and to a conspiracy to bring cocaine into the United States. The scheme ran from May to November 2023. In about seven months, that much money moved through the operation. He did not act alone.

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