Carlos Antonio Vasquez, 41, of Nogales, Arizona, faces 30 months in prison after previously pleading guilty in May to conspiracy to commit money laundering.
U.S. District Judge James A. Soto handed down the sentence in Tucson on Sept. 1. Vasquez was ordered to start his sentence on Oct. 1. Upon his release from prison, he will be under supervised release for three years, court documents said.
While prosecuting the case, federal officials alleged that between February 2017 and August 2019, Vasquez, while branch manager of a bank location in Rio Rico, conspired to launder money for a group of individuals to conceal the illegal source of the funds. The money laundering organization brought Mexican citizens into the bank who in turn had bank accounts set up by Vasquez for the purpose of funneling the illegal funds back to Mexico.
The other co-conspirators were not named in Vasquez's plea agreement or sentencing documents. The actual name of the bank was only referred to in court documents as "Bank A," but according to reports in the Nogales International newspaper, the bank was a branch of Wells Fargo NA.
