David Murcia Guzman, the extradited Colombian detainee responsible for a giant money laundering scheme, may receive a nine year prison sentence in the U.S, according to his lawyer, Colombian media reported Friday.
This coming Monday, a New York judge will decide whether to accept a sentence reduction agreement, from 20 to nine years, made between the fraudulent creator of what was known as the DMG pyramid and the U.S. Prosecutor General’s Office, in which Guzman would have to pay $7 million.
The accused’s U.S. lawyer, Robert Abreu, said that the agreement does not take into account any testimonies or criminal actions that may have taken place since the original sentence was given.
He added that the final word rests with the Manhattan court, which will make a decision on Monday afternoon.
Guzman, the “brain” of financial company DMG, amassed a fortune by conning thousands of Colombians before his arrest in Panama in November 2008. He was subsequently sentenced by a Colombian judge in December to 30 years and eight months in prison, before being extradited to the U.S. in January 2010.
In his first U.S. hearing in January of last year, Murcia Guzman initially declared himself innocent of all charges but later accepted the money laundering charges, although he refuted charges of being connected with drug trafficking.
Along with the laundering of drug money, Murcia Guzman is suspected of various controversial acts, such as financing political campaigns in Panama and aiding the campaign for a referendum to allow Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s re-election.