MINNEAPOLIS – A federal grand jury returned an indictment towards a Minneapolis lady for operating a drug cash laundering conspiracy on behalf of a large-scale fentanyl and marijuana supplier, introduced U.S. Legal professional Andrew M. Luger.
In response to court docket paperwork, between December 2018 and August 2019, Phouvanh Keokaythinh, 36, knowingly conspired with others to conduct monetary transactions that concerned the proceeds of fentanyl and marijuana trafficking. As a part of the conspiracy, Keokaythinh saved massive quantities of money drug proceeds for Lyndon Swarn, a large-scale fentanyl and marijuana supplier, at her household residence in Bloomington. At any given time, Keokaythinh stashed as much as $80,000 on the residence. Swarn’s drug earnings was generated from the manufacturing and sale of unlawful fentanyl-laced Oxycodone drugs, in addition to the manufacturing and sale of huge quantities of marijuana.
In response to court docket paperwork, Keokaythinh used money from Swarn’s drug proceeds to buy a farm property in Ironwood, Michigan. Swarn and his associates used this property to illegally develop massive quantities of marijuana. Keokaythinh and others laundered drug proceeds right into a checking account owned by L&S Administration LLC, a shell firm used for the acquisition, upkeep, and maintenance of the property in Ironwood. Keokaythinh additionally directed others to keep up a bank card that was used for Swarn’s private spending and different bills associated to the drug trafficking conspiracy. Between January 2017 and March 2019, Keokaythinh and others used drug proceeds to make roughly $117,782.72 in funds on the bank card.
In response to court docket paperwork, on January 31, 2020, Keokaythinh willfully and knowingly made false statements in an utility for a passport. Within the utility, Keokaythinh falsely claimed that she had misplaced her passport whereas on a visit to Los Angeles when, in actuality, she knew that her passport had been seized by legislation enforcement on October 23, 2019, throughout the execution of a search warrant on the Ironwood property.
Keokaythinh is charged with one depend of cash laundering conspiracy, one depend of concealment cash laundering, and one depend of false statements in utility for a passport. She made her preliminary look in U.S. District Courtroom on October 31, 2022, earlier than Justice of the Peace Decide Tony N. Leung.
On June 2, 2022, Swarn was convicted in Hennepin County of aiding and abetting first-degree homicide in relation to the New 12 months’s Eve 2019 kidnapping and homicide of an area actual property agent. On Could 17, 2021, Swarn was convicted in U.S. District Courtroom for possession with intent to distribute greater than 33,000 fentanyl-laced Oxycodone drugs.
This case is the results of an investigation performed by the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Minneapolis Police Division, and the Hopkins Police Division, with help from the Hennepin County Legal professional’s Workplace.
Assistant U.S. Legal professional Harry M. Jacobs is prosecuting the case.
An indictment is merely an allegation and the defendant is presumed harmless till confirmed responsible past an inexpensive doubt in a court docket of legislation.
