- The case was unsealed in the Eastern District of Virginia, charging Miami-based Jorge Figueira with conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and related offenses.
- The affidavit details a USDT model with placement of cash or direct USDT, layering through multiple wallets and networks to a macro-wallet, and integration via US brokers and shell companies.
- Investigators traced controlled transactions, including $50,000 routed through nine crypto hops in 22 minutes; the macro-wallet received $1.05 billion USDT across 3,381 deposits between April 2024 and June 2025.
The unsealing of a criminal case in the Eastern District of Virginia has drawn attention to a major usdt laundering case involving Miami-based Jorge Figueira, a national of Venezuela and Spain. Court filings allege he ran a money laundering conspiracy tied to more than $1 billion in USDT transactions. The allegations also underscore how blockchain records and on-chain analysis can help investigators follow activity that suspects try to hide through wallet-hopping and cross-network transfers.
Allegations and charges in the USDT laundering case
Prosecutors have charged Figueira with Conspiracy to Launder Monetary Instruments under 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h), along with related money laundering offenses. Investigators say he presented his operation to U.S. financial institutions as a “trade finance consulting company,” but they allege the business was a front. According to recorded conversations cited in the affidavit, Figueira allegedly said his Miami office was effectively empty and described it as a shell location, claiming it would contain nothing more than “a Twinkie and a bag of popcorn” if law enforcement searched it.
The affidavit states that Figueira allegedly ran a network of shell companies used to move funds connected to illicit activity, including narcotics trafficking and counterfeit goods. The case is being framed as an example of how criminals may attempt to exploit a widely used stablecoin, while investigators use transaction visibility on public ledgers to reconstruct how funds travel through multiple wallets and entities.
How USDT was used to layer transactions
Authorities describe a structured method built around USDT that they say was designed to blur the trail of funds. The affidavit lays out a three-part model—placement, layering, and integration—where each stage is intended to add distance between the original source of money and its destination.
In the placement step, investigators allege Figueira accepted USDT from clients or took bulk cash in Venezuela and then converted that cash into USDT. The next step, layering, is described as a deliberate attempt to complicate tracking. According to what Figueira allegedly told a confidential source, funds would “transit through seven more wallets” and move “from one network to another” before reaching a consolidation point he called the “macro-wallet.” The integration phase is described as the point where USDT would be routed from that macro-wallet to brokers in the United States, swapped into U.S. dollars, and then wired to shell companies linked to Figueira. From there, the money was allegedly distributed to client bank accounts after subtracting a commission fee.
The filing also outlines what compliance teams could look for at each stage. At placement, it points to the risk of large cash amounts being turned into stablecoins in jurisdictions considered high-risk. At layering, it emphasizes screening deposits for patterns such as rapid, repeated hops between wallets and other markers associated with laundering methods. At integration, it highlights the importance of reviewing incoming wires tied to unfamiliar brokers or entities with unclear ownership, particularly when the stated business purpose—such as trade finance—appears inconsistent with the transaction activity.
Following the money trail with blockchain analytics
Despite the alleged effort to conceal wallet ownership and transaction paths, investigators say blockchain transparency allowed the FBI to map the activity. The affidavit describes a series of “controlled transactions” in which law enforcement tracked movements in real time. In one example involving $50,000, analytics tools reportedly observed the funds moving through nine separate cryptocurrency transactions in 22 minutes before reaching a broker.
Investigators argued in the filing that “there is no legitimate business purpose for the speed, structure, and layering of these transactions.” By linking these fast sequences of transfers to a consolidation wallet, authorities say they were able to match on-chain records with the private statements attributed to Figueira.
The affidavit says the macro-wallet can be identified through tracing those controlled transactions. Between April 2024 and June 2025, a single wallet received $1.05 billion in USDT across 3,381 incoming transfers. Investigators connect that figure to the description attributed to Figueira, who allegedly said the wallet would eventually “… reach $1,000,000,000 in value…” The filing also notes the largest single incoming transaction to that wallet was for just over four million USDT in October 2024.
Conclusion
The case against Jorge Figueira presents a detailed view of an alleged usdt laundering case built around rapid wallet-to-wallet transfers, cross-network movement, and consolidation into a high-volume account before conversion to U.S. dollars. At the same time, the affidavit describes how immutable on-chain records and analytics tools enabled investigators to trace activity through controlled transactions and map flows into a macro-wallet. The filing also points to compliance lessons for financial institutions and virtual asset service providers, arguing that patterns like high-speed multi-hop transfers and consolidation behavior can be detected when monitoring is designed to identify those typologies in real time.
Disclaimer
The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. The article does not offer sufficient information to make investment decisions, nor does it constitute an offer, recommendation, or solicitation to buy or sell any financial instrument. The content is opinion of the author and does not reflect any view or suggestion or any kind of advise from CryptoNewsBytes.com. The author declares he does not hold any of the above mentioned tokens or received any incentive from any company.
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