June 8, 2004 – LAWFUEL – Marcos Daniel Jiménez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Brian Wimpling, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations, announced that defendants, Raphael Samuel Adouth and Lourdes
Meulener Challiol, were arrested on Friday, June 4, 2004, pursuant to Indictment
that was unsealed today. The eight-count Indictment charges defendants, Raphael
Samuel Adouth, Lourdes Meulener Challiol, Rosenthal Jewelers Supply Corporation,
and Rosenthal, L.L.C. , with among other things, conspiracy to commit money
laundering, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1956(h);
laundering of monetary instruments, in violation of Title 18, United States Code,
Section 1956(a)(3)(B); and filing false Internal Revenue Service Form 8300, in
violation of Title 31, United States Code, Sections 5324(b) and 5324(d)(2). Adouth
and Challiol face up to 109 years’ imprisonment and several millions of dollars in
fines.
This case stems from a joint effort by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal
Investigations, and the Miami-Dade Police Department named Operation GoldStar. The
Indictment charges that the defendants engaged in a money laundering operation
where they would accept millions of dollars in cash from narcotic dealers and in
turn would provide them with gold, which the narcotics dealers would export to
Colombia.
At the defendants’ initial appearance this afternoon, Magistrate Judge Stephen
Brown set a $1 million dollar bond for defendant Adouth and a $100,000 dollar bond
for defendant Challiol.
Mr. Jiménez commended the efforts of the Internal Revenue Service and Miami-Dade
Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States
Attorneys Yvonne Rodriguez-Schack and Cameron Elliott.
