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Federal agents tied the quintet to $673 million in dirty money laundered through the illicit operations over the past four years, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.
In exchange, Raj Vaidya, 26; Rakesh Vaidya, 51; Shrey Vaidya, 23; and Neel Patel, 26, all of Edison; and Youssef Janfar, aka “Joe Rodeo,” 57, of Great Neck, NY collected sizable fees, he said.
The three Vaidyas and Patel operated a number of purported diamond, gold, and jewelry companies in the Diamond District – among them, Arya Diamond Jewellery USA Inc., which did business as “Karats & Carats,” Sellinger said.
Other operations were identified in court papers as Diamspark LGD LLC, Royal Diamonds LLC, Raj Gold and Diamond LLC, Royal Arya Jewellery Inc, and Raj Gold and Diamond Inc.
Janfar also purportedly operated Rodeo of NY, which did business as “Sarah Jewels,” among other alleged fronts.
Those charged in the case used the operations as fronts to conduct hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal financial transactions for customers – including converting cash to checks or wire transfers – in exchange for substantial fees, Sellinger said.
“None of their companies were registered as money transmitting businesses with New York, New Jersey, or the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network,” the U.S. attorney said.
Sellinger didn’t characterize their customers, although he did note that the DEA and Homeland Security Investigations teamed up with the IRS to make the case.
He also cited the assistance of local police in Morristown and Parsippany-Troy Hills, along with the NYPD, the U.S. Justice Department’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section and the FDIC’s Office of Inspector General.
The agencies all united under the auspices of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces Strike Force Initiative, which focuses on disrupting and dismantling “the most significant drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations,” Sellinger said.
A U.S. District Court judge in Newark released all five defendants on unsecured bonds pending trial on charges of operating and aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money-transmitting business, he said.
Handing the case for the government, Sellinger said, are Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark J. Pesce of his Economic Crimes Unit, Olta Bejleri of the Organized Crime/Gangs Unit and Angelica Sinopole of the Health Care Fraud Unit.
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