ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 23, 1996 TAG: 9608230090
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA
SOURCE: Associated Press
A federal judge has sealed the American bank accounts of a Swiss financier and two associates, a week after the three were arrested in a $2 million money-laundering sting.
U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton on Wednesday barred Karl Burkhardt, Marco Meroni and Fernando Sotomayor-Rejas from using money stowed in bank accounts in Florida and several other states. All three are in federal custody without bond pending trial on money-laundering charges.
The three were arrested in the lobby of an Arlington hotel after Burkhardt accepted a suitcase full of cash from an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent posing as a drug dealer, authorities said.
DEA agents described Burkhardt as an elite money launderer who routinely dealt in millions of tainted dollars. They said he used a complex network of banks and offshore companies to convert large amounts of drug money into untraceable assets.
Burkhardt, 43, planned to fly to Switzerland by private jet after collecting the money, the DEA said.
All three face maximum sentences of 20 years in prison and $5.2 million fines.
The investigation began in January, when Sotomayor-Rejas told a DEA informer he could provide access to a money launderer able to move large amounts of money, according to a federal court affidavit filed by the DEA.
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