November 6 2016
Khanani was arrested in September last year following a sting operation by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and has been in jail ever since. According to unconfirmed reports, the arrest was made in Panama after a sealed grand jury indictment in the US District Court of the Southern District of Florida charged him on 14 counts of money laundering in June 2015.
One count was of conspiracy to launder money, while the remaining 13 charged him with conducting transactions defined as money laundering. He has pleaded guilty to the first count and the US attorney’s office has agreed to seek dismissal of the remaining 13 counts.Taken together, these and a string of other entities identified by US law enforcement agencies have collectively been designated as the Khanani Money Laundering Organisation (MLO), which the Treasury department claims “is responsible for laundering billions of dollars in organised crime proceeds annually”.