Xiomara Christian, a 37-year-old resident of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, received a 33-month prison sentence from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York. The sentence was handed down for her involvement in laundering drug proceeds from Europe and Australia through bank accounts in the United States. The announcement was made on December 20th.
Court documents reveal that Christian confessed to collaborating with a co-conspirator from May 2017 to November 2018 in order to hide the source of drug money, as stated by the department.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Christian and her associate employed bank accounts in the area to conceal the drug profits by presenting them as lawful business transactions.
The department noted that they designed their actions to make it seem like the money was obtained legally.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, on October 4, 2018, Christian handed over €101,950 ($114,816.09) in drug proceeds to an undercover agent from the National Police of the Netherlands while he was in the country.
On October 5, 2018, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission reported that one of their undercover agents in Melbourne, Australia, successfully acquired $85,000 AUD ($57,843 USD) from a co-conspirator involved in drug sales.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Christian proceeded to wire the funds through a bank account in Latham, New York, and subsequently sent them to bank accounts in Panama.
Senior U.S. District Judge Lawrence E. Kahn has sentenced Christian to a prison term. Along with the prison term, Christian has also been ordered to pay a money judgment of $172,659 by the judge.
Christian is at risk of being deported from the United States after serving her prison sentence, as stated by the U.S. attorney’s office.
Christian, whose full name remains undisclosed in court filings, entered a guilty plea on October 10, 2024.