Fresno Business Owner Pleads Guilty To Money Laundering
FRESNO, Calif. - Krishen Sauble Iyer, 36, of Fresno, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to launder money, Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge John J. Martin and U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert jointly announced the plea.
According to court documents, Iyer was the owner of several insurance sales and brokerage businesses in Fresno. Iyer conspired with “S.V.,” whom he knew to be a marijuana trafficker, to launder the proceeds of S.V.’s marijuana trafficking through Health Shield, one of Iyer’s businesses. Iyer and S.V. agreed that S.V. would transfer the drug proceeds to Health Shield, and those funds would then be paid back to S.V. to make the drug proceeds appear to be legitimate salary payments. Iyer issued two Form 1099s to S.V., which claimed that Health Shield paid S.V. $111,952 in 2013 and $164,000 in 2014, even though he never earned all of those funds from the company. S.V. paid Iyer a commission for transferring the funds.
This case is the product of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the IRS Criminal Investigation, and the Fresno Police Department. Assistant United States Attorneys Grant B. Rabenn and Jeffrey A. Spivak are prosecuting the case.
Iyer is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Dale A. Drozd on April 24, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. Iyer faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.
