Woman sentenced to two years in jail for $20 million Chinese money laundering scheme

The Department of Justice (DOJ) sentenced a New York woman to two years in prison Monday for laundering over $20 million of drug trafficking money, in what the department described as a “Chinese money laundering scheme.”

Rui Fang Yu, 40, accepted “large amounts of cash” from individuals “involved in the laundering of drug proceeds,” according to a DOJ press release. Part of the money laundered was reportedly profit from the sale of cocaine and heroin by a Mexican drug cartel.

Yu worked as an “accountant at an airline ticket consolidator in Flushing, Queens,” and reportedly used her employer’s bank accounts to launder the money, per the DOJ’s release. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in August 2025.

According to the press release, the money was laundered “through business transactions ostensibly made to purchase airline tickets.” Yu and her co-conspirators reportedly moved the money to “accounts controlled by co-conspirators in the United States and China.”

“The Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section’s (MNF) mission is to take the profit out of crime, eliminate drug cartels, and protect the U.S. financial system,” the press release stated. “MNF pursues criminal prosecutions and criminal and civil asset recovery actions involving: financial facilitators who conceal profits for criminals; financial institutions and their officers and employees who violate money laundering, Bank Secrecy Act, and sanctions laws; international money launderers who support transnational organized crime; and the top command and control of international drug trafficking organizations.”

The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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