DOJ secures convictions for money-laundering banker and forced-labor conspirators
The Justice Department announced a prison term for a former bank manager who laundered $8 million for a Russian crime group and indicted three men for a forced-labor scheme targeting Chinese migrants in Georgia.
The Department of Justice disclosed that Renat Abramov, who once worked as a relationship manager at a Sheepshead Bay bank branch, helped a Russia-based transnational criminal organization funnel fraudulent Medicare and private-insurance claims, laundering roughly $8 million through accounts he opened for the scheme’s owners. Abramov was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.
In a separate indictment, three individuals—Zhu Chen, Jiayi Chen and Jianjun Lu—are accused of recruiting Chinese nationals under false pretenses, securing B-1 and L-1 visas, and then confining them to 12-hour workdays, six days a week, at a flooring manufacturer in Cartersville, Georgia, while withholding passports, underpaying them, and subjecting them to threats and abuse. The defendants face up to 20 years in prison for the forced-labor conspiracy. Both cases underscore the DOJ’s focus on disrupting financial crimes and labor exploitation.
Why it matters
The cases highlight federal efforts to combat financial fraud and exploitative labor practices that harm workers and taxpayers.
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