The collective wealth of a notorious Colombian money launderer, now imprisoned in the U.S, has been reinstated to the Colombian government, local media sources reported Monday.
Colombian newspaper El Tiempo reported that just over $2 million held in US bank accounts previously owned by David Murcia Guzman, who is serving a nine year prison sentence in the U.S, was seized and presented to the Colombian government.
The Deputy Attorney for the Western Hemisphere Department of Justice, Kenneth White expressed that the news is ‘’a great moment.” and said that “There is a great partnership with Colombia and this proves it is successful.”
Maria Mercedes Perry, who is handling liquidation of Guzman’s company disclosed that the money will be used to help 240,000 people who were affected by his crimes.
It was also reported that the U.S. government intends to do the same with assets and wealth of Colombia’s former largest brokerage firm, InterBolsa, which was liquidated by the Colombian government in November.
Guzman was the head of a controversial agency known as D.M.G. Holdings S.A. which, as well as money laundering, was known for harboring the greed of the Colombian super-rich in the Cocaine-producing regions of the country.