New Jersey Couple Pleads Guilty to Illegally Moving $60 Million to Latin America

NEWARK, N.J. - A New Jersey-based couple originally from Colombia admitted yesterday to illegally operating unlicensed money transmitting businesses, Senior Counsel Philip Lamparello announced.

Nicholas Ortega Munoz, 23, a Colombian national formerly of Hackensack, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton in Newark federal court yesterday to an Information charging him with conspiring to, and operating, an unlicensed money transmitting business. Isabella Valderrama Ospina, 23, a resident of Hackensack, New Jersey, also pleaded guilty before Judge Wigenton to a separate Information charging her with operating and aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, Ortega Munoz, Valderrama Ospina, and others used a novel scheme to secretly move money from the United States to Colombia using two fake companies: BLK Graphics Group and Technology SD. The sham companies were built to serve as cash pipelines to move tens of millions of dollars to Latin America and avoid law enforcement detection. At no point were BLK or Technology SD ever appropriately registered as a money transmitting business, as FinCEN required them to be.

To carry out the scheme, BLK and Technology SD used a rotating stable of bank accounts at multiple financial institutions to funnel money deposited from pornographic websites and other entities to Latin America. For example, one website allowed online consumers to send "tokens" to pay adult performers for online performances. As part of the scheme, those "tokens" were then withdrawn from the websites and deposited into BLK and Technology SD bank accounts. Ortega Munoz, Valderrama Ospina, and others, then quickly directed the transfer of those funds to shell companies in Colombia. Between April 2021 and June 2025, BLK and Technology SD moved over $62 million in proceeds to accounts in Colombia.

The charges of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and operating and aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business each carry a statutory maximum prison sentence of five years and a statutory maximum fine of the greatest of $250,000, twice the gross amount of any pecuniary gain that any persons derived from the offense, or twice the gross amount of any pecuniary loss sustained by any victims of the offense, whichever is greatest. Sentencing for Mr. Ortega Munoz is scheduled for June 23, 2026. Sentencing for Ms. Valderrama Ospina is scheduled for June 25, 2026.

Senior Counsel Lamparello credited special agents of the FBI's Newark Field Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Stefanie Roddy and investigators from the U.S. Attorney's Office with the investigation leading to the guilty pleas.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert L. Toll of the U.S. Attorney's Office's Health Care Fraud & Opioids Enforcement Unit in Newark.

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Defense counsel: Ileana Montes, Esq. (Nicholas Ortega Munoz); Tyler Newman, Esq. (Isabella Valderrama Ospina).