Almost two decades after the case that shocked Mexico due to the seizure of more than $205 million in cash in a residence in Mexico City, a federal judge sentenced Zhenli Ye Gon to 15 years and one day in prison for the crime of operations with resources of illicit origin.
The Attorney General's Office (FGR) reported that the sentence corresponds to an investigation related to the laundering of 33 million dollars, resources that the Mexican businessman of Chinese origin transferred from Mexico to bank accounts in the United States between 2004 and 2007, through operations carried out through companies linked to him.
This is the first conviction obtained by the FGR against Ye Gon since he was extradited from the United States and detained in the Altiplano federal prison in February 2019.
Zhenli Ye Gon's name was marked in the judicial history of Mexico after the search carried out in March 2007 at a residence he owned, where federal authorities seized more than 205 million dollars in cash, in addition to pesos, euros, Hong Kong dollars, jewelry and other assets.
That episode gave rise to one of the most media investigations in the country and popularized the phrase "coopelas o neck", an expression that Ye Gon attributed to the then Secretary of Labor, Javier Lozano, when he assured that he was forced to protect the money for alleged political purposes, an accusation that was always rejected by the former official.
After being detained for almost a decade in the United States, Ye Gon was extradited to Mexico in October 2016.
Subsequently, in February 2019, the Mexican authorities completed an arrest warrant for the crime of operations with resources of illicit origin, a process that culminated in the sentence issued on July 30.
Although he faces other criminal proceedings derived from investigations initiated since 2007, this resolution represents the first conviction against him by the Mexican justice system.
