A federal judge sentenced Zhenli Ye Gon to 15 years and one day in prison for the offense of businesses with tools of illicit origin, almost 20 years after the scandal that shocked Mexico with the arrest of more than$ 205 million in cash in a home in Mexico City.
According to the Attorney General's Office ( FGR ), the sentence is in line with an investigation into the laundering of 33 million dollars, funds that the businessman of Chinese descent from Mexico transferred from Mexico to American bank accounts between 2004 and 2007 through business dealings with him.
Ye Gon was extradited from the United States and detained in the Altiplano federal prison in February 2019, and this is the first judgment the FGR has ever received.
The making of wealth
After the federal government seized more than 205 million dollars in cash from his home in March 2007, along with pesos, euros, Hong Kong dollars, bracelets, and other assets, Zhenli Ye Gon's title was recorded in Mexico's criminal history.
One of the most media studies in the nation was sparked by that incident when Ye Gon attributed the word" coopelas o neck," an expression that the next Secretary of Labor, Javier Lozano, assured him that he was forced to protect the funds for alleged political reasons, an accusation that the former official never accepted.
Ye Gon was detained in the United States for about ten years before being extradited to Mexico in October 2016.
Following that, the Mexican government issued an arrest warrant for the offense of operating with prohibited substances in February 2019.
Although he is the subject of another criminal prosecutions that have been launched since 2007, this decision is the first one the Mexican justice system has issued against him.
