NYC Accountant Gets Two Years for Laundering $20 Million in Drug Proceeds

Prosecutors say she used an airline ticket consolidator to move cartel-linked cash through trade-based transactions.

Overview

A federal judge imposed the two-year prison term on Feb. 2, 2026, for conduct that spanned 2016 to 2020.
Rui Fang Yu laundered more than $20 million by routing cash through her employer’s bank accounts under the guise of airline ticket purchases.
The proceeds included money from heroin and cocaine sales by a U.S. trafficking group linked to a Mexican cartel.
Yu and co-conspirators moved the funds to accounts controlled by associates in the United States and China.
She pleaded guilty in August 2025 to conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering, after a DEA and FBI probe prosecuted by DOJ’s MNF Section and the Eastern District of New York.