{"id":181923,"date":"2021-08-04T11:34:24","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T18:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=181923"},"modified":"2021-08-04T12:03:56","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T19:03:56","slug":"us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/","title":{"rendered":"US Citizen Laundered South American Drug Cartel Money in Guatemala Casinos"},"content":{"rendered":"

A US citizen pleaded guilty in a federal courtroom Monday to laundering money<\/a> for South American drug cartels<\/a>, partly through two casinos he owned in Guatemala.<\/p>\n

\"Xizhi
Xizhi Li, pictured, allegedly entertained fellow gangsters at his casinos in Guatemala City. (Image: Alexandria Sheriff\u2019s Office)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Xizhi Li, 48, is accused of washing at least $30 million for drugs gangs, including the notorious Sinaloa Cartel and its former leader, Joaqu\u00edn \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzm\u00e1n.<\/p>\n

According to prosecutors, Li played a \u201cleadership role\u201d in a years-long conspiracy that used \u201ca foreign casino, foreign and domestic front companies, foreign and domestic bank accounts, false passports, and other false identification documents to launder money on behalf of transnational drug-trafficking organizations whose main drug-trafficking activities involved cocaine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving Money <\/strong><\/h2>\n

China-born, naturalized US citizen Li is a former LA restaurateur who most recently lived in Mexico. With co-conspirator Eric Yong Woo, he bought the Golden Video Loteria and Golden MGM casinos in Guatemala City.<\/p>\n

According to an unnamed confidential federal witness, as well as using the casinos to launder money, the men went into the gambling business \u201cto show drug cartel representatives that they were wealthy businessmen\u201d and \u201cwere capable of successfully moving drug money, and that if the money was seized, they would be capable of repaying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Prosecutors said the casinos were also a place to entertain fellow gangsters and \u201cmake new drug trafficking and money laundering contacts,\u201d while acting as a convenient place to store weapons.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Another co-conspirator, Chinese national Tao Liu, 46, of Hong Kong, was sentenced on Tuesday to seven years in prison for his role in the conspiracy. Liu collected bulk drug cash on behalf of Li, which he later deposited into accounts controlled by Li.<\/p>\n

Lui also attempted to bribe an undercover DEA agent posing as a corrupt US State Department official in an effort to obtain US passports for members of the gang,<\/p>\n

Public Danger <\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cThis prosecution demonstrates the enormous value of collaborating with agencies across the government and with our international partners to dismantle and hold accountable transnational criminal organizations that pose a significant danger to the public,\u201d said Acting U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh for the Eastern District of Virginia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe far-reaching conspiracy in this case involved the laundering of millions of dollars of illegal proceeds on behalf of transnational drug-trafficking organizations through the use of a casino, front companies, foreign and domestic bank accounts, false identification documents, and bulk cash smuggling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe greatly appreciate the essential and innumerable contributions from our partner agencies, all of whom worked closely together to thoroughly follow the facts and evidence that led to the unraveling of this multimillion-dollar money-laundering scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n

Li will be sentenced on October 26. He faces up to 20 years in prison on a charge of money laundering conspiracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A US citizen pleaded guilty in a federal courtroom Monday to laundering money for South American drug cartels, partly through two casinos he owned in Guatemala. Xizhi Li, 48, is accused of washing at least $30 million for drugs gangs, including the notorious Sinaloa Cartel and its former leader, Joaqu\u00edn \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzm\u00e1n. According to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":181924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUS Citizen Laundered Drug Cartel Money Through Guatemala Casinos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Xizhi Li, a Chinese American, spearheaded money laundering gang with links to South American drugs cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US Citizen Laundered Drug Cartel Money Through Guatemala Casinos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Xizhi Li, a Chinese American, spearheaded money laundering gang with links to South American drugs cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-04T18:34:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-04T19:03:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Xizhi-Li.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"677\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/\",\"name\":\"US Citizen Laundered Drug Cartel Money Through Guatemala Casinos\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Xizhi-Li.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-04T18:34:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-04T19:03:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Xizhi Li, a Chinese American, spearheaded money laundering gang with links to South American drugs cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Xizhi-Li.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Xizhi-Li.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":677,\"caption\":\"Xizhi Li, pictured, allegedly entertained fellow gangsters at his casinos in Guatemala City. (Image: Alexandria Sheriff\u2019s Office)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"US Citizen Laundered South American Drug Cartel Money in Guatemala Casinos\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"US Citizen Laundered Drug Cartel Money Through Guatemala Casinos","description":"Xizhi Li, a Chinese American, spearheaded money laundering gang with links to South American drugs cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"US Citizen Laundered Drug Cartel Money Through Guatemala Casinos","og_description":"Xizhi Li, a Chinese American, spearheaded money laundering gang with links to South American drugs cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2021-08-04T18:34:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-08-04T19:03:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":677,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Xizhi-Li.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/","name":"US Citizen Laundered Drug Cartel Money Through Guatemala Casinos","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Xizhi-Li.jpg","datePublished":"2021-08-04T18:34:24+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-04T19:03:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Xizhi Li, a Chinese American, spearheaded money laundering gang with links to South American drugs cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Xizhi-Li.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Xizhi-Li.jpg","width":1200,"height":677,"caption":"Xizhi Li, pictured, allegedly entertained fellow gangsters at his casinos in Guatemala City. (Image: Alexandria Sheriff\u2019s Office)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/us-citizen-laundered-south-american-drug-cartel-money-through-guatemala-casinos\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"US Citizen Laundered South American Drug Cartel Money in Guatemala Casinos"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181923"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}