NYC woman Rui Fang Yu, who was involved in an elaborate money laundering scheme, will spend two years in jail. She laundered over $20 million from drug sales throughout the U.S.
Yu used her professional role as an airline ticket consolidator to launder the money. She worked as an accountant, which made it easier for her to move large sums of money. The cash was collected from the sales of cocaine and hash from Mexican cartel-linked drug trafficking organizations.
She conspired with the cartels to launder the money using the bank account of her employer. Yu made suspicious business transactions to conceal the profits received from the sale of drugs. She bought airline tickets to validate the transactions. Their scheme involved networks operating across China and the U.S.
Feb 2: New York woman Rui Fang Yu was sentenced to two years in prison for her involvement in a Chinese money laundering scheme.
Yu laundered over $20 million in proceeds from drug trafficking. She accepted large amounts of cash from co-conspirators involved in the laundering of… pic.twitter.com/hl2EXDIl2E
— Byron Wan (@Byron_Wan) February 3, 2026
The NYC woman pleaded guilty to one count of trade-based money laundering scheme. She made the transactions that would look real to evade the law. Yu pleaded guilty in August 2025 and will spend two years in jail.
Her attorney, Kelvin Wu, tried to argue that this was her first offense and she’s a legal U.S. citizen residing in the country. Wu pushed for probation. Her attorney also shed light on her personal battles.
She has two kids and takes care of her elderly parents. Her crime was due to financial hardships, the attorney emphasized. Wu also explained that this was the worst decision of her life that she made out of vulnerability. The memo reads, “In that period of vulnerability, she made the worst decision of her life. She agreed to deposit funds for others, telling herself it was a simple favor connected to business dealings.”
Two Year Prison Sentence for Woman Who Laundered Over $20M Dollars
A New York woman was sentenced today to two years in prison for her involvement in a Chinese money laundering scheme according to @TheJusticeDept
According to court documents, Rui Fang Yu, 40, of New York City,…
— Scott Taylor (@ScottTaylorTV) February 2, 2026
Furthermore, he stated that she did not have any control over the money and only received a small commission for her role in the money laundering. Apart from the prison time, Yu also lost her green card and faces possible deportation to China.
Despite not receiving massive amounts of money for herself, Yu was still a huge part of the scheme. According to the investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the FBI, it was concluded that she facilitated money laundering from drug trafficking. The court viewed all the factors to give her the sentence. Yu also accepted that what she did was wrong and that she had a responsibility to say no.
