Marissel Descalzo has extensive experience representing individuals and corporations accused of money laundering violations and/or who have been targets of money laundering investigations.
Historically, she has represented financial institutions, casinos, yacht sellers, insurance companies, investment brokers, real estate companies, and other financial businesses located in the United States, as well as clients in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe. Marissel has delivered proven results, including reaching non-prison resolutions for clients and deferred prosecution agreements for corporations.
Given the increased scrutiny in Latin America, she has recently focused her representation of Latin American clients and/or United States companies with subsidiaries in Latin America. Recently, Marissel represented the former Treasurer of Venezuela.
Marissel speaks Spanish fluently, giving her the ability to more effectively communicate with clients and to engage in any investigations in Latin America.
What is Money Laundering?
Money laundering is a serious federal crime is defined in 18 U.S.C. §§ 1956 and 1957.
Section 1956 outlaws four kinds of money laundering—promotional, concealment, structuring, and tax evasion laundering of the proceeds generated by designated federal, state, and foreign underlying crimes (predicate offenses). Section 1957, prohibits depositing or spending more than $10,000 of the proceeds from a predicate offense.
Although these statutes are limited in scope to transactions involving property derived from “specified unlawful activity,” the term has been expanded to include an extremely broad range of federal crimes that have the potential to result in financial gain. These include, but are not limited to:
- Financial Fraud, including but not limited to bank fraud, government program fraud, health care fraud, and insurance fraud
- Bribery and Blackmail
- Drug crimes
- Smuggling, trafficking, and other import and export crimes
- Purchases, sales, monetary gifts, loans, bank deposits, wire transfers, currency exchanges, and investments
- Theft and Embezzlement
- Violent crimes
- Multiple types of criminal conspiracies
A conviction for money laundering under either Section 1956 or Section 1957 can result in extremely harsh penalties, including fines and incarceration. As with most federal financial crimes, the exact sentence will be determined primarily by the amount of money processed during the commission of the offense. Furthermore, it is also important to note that the government will pursue money laundering charges in addition to other charges such as conspiracy, mail and wire fraud, racketeering (“RICO”), or some other financially motivated crime.
