Spanish national fights 150-year US prison term for laundering
A man from Spain imprisoned for 150 years on money laundering charges is asking a federal appeals panel in Miami to throw out his convictions, claiming the statutes were wrongly applied and evidence was gathered without judicial authorization.
Spanish national fights 150-year US prison term for laundering
A federal prisoner from Spain is asking an appellate court in Atlanta to reverse his convictions and 150-year sentence for money laundering. Alvaro Lopez Tardon, who ran an international narcotics network from a luxury residence in Miami Beach, appeared before three judges on Wednesday.
According to Courthouse News, Tardon was found guilty in 2014 of conspiracy and thirteen counts of laundering criminal proceeds. Prosecutors said he directed a cocaine smuggling enterprise from South America to Spain between 2007 and 2014, generating about fourteen million dollars. He allegedly spent the funds on high-end real estate, automobiles, and jewelry in Florida.
His lawyer, Richard Klugh Jr., argued the sentencing framework was designed for domestic offenses, not for reaching into Spain to punish someone for life. He insisted the government never proved the cash came from illegal activity inside the United States, and that Tardon was never charged with a drug felony in Spain — a requirement, he said, for the international laundering counts.
Klugh also attacked the way investigators acquired Tardon's personal journal. Court filings indicate his spouse, working as an informant for the FBI, removed the diary from their home, bagged it, and set it on the porch for agents to retrieve. The defense called this an unconstitutional search, asserting she had no lawful power to hand over his private writings.
Prosecutor Andrew Noll responded that the legal objections came too late, first appearing in a motion filed during sentencing. He justified the diary's use by pointing out Tardon had given it to his wife long before, and that she had unrestricted access to their shared living space.
Judges Britt Grant and Barbara Lagoa questioned whether the financial transactions truly took place on American soil, and why the government waited two years to tell defense lawyers about the diary.
In a separate argument, attorney Jenny Wilson contested the seizure of nine expensive watches, two cars, and four apartments belonging to Tardon's relatives. She said a jury cleared those assets of any connection to wrongdoing, and some were taken without the evidentiary hearings mandated by law. Noll disagreed, submitting more than one hundred exhibits to demonstrate the properties were held by front men.
The court has not yet ruled on the appeal. Tardon remains subject to a fourteen-million-dollar forfeiture order.
Source: Courthouse News Service