Appellate Court Upholds Lawyer’s Money Laundering Conviction

On July 21, 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed the conviction of Luis Flores, a solo practitioner in Queens, New York, for helping an Ecuadorian businessman launder drug trafficking proceeds. In 1998, German Osvaldo Altamirano-Lean visited Flores’ office and presented himself as an Ecuadorian businessman trying to establish a flower, fruit, and seafood import/export business in the U.S. Flores, a naturalized U.S. citizen and native of Chile, claimed that he was convinced of Altamirano’s bona fides and wanted to develop a practice assisting South American businessmen.