A man who oversaw a scheme to launder millions of dollars from the United States to benefit pharmaceutical organizations has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison, according to the US Department of Justice.
Daniel Shaun Zilke, nicknamed “the Englishman,” was also fined $50,000 and ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Zilke, 49, was arrested last year in May and pleaded guilty months later to conspiracy to aid and abet drug distribution, money laundering and obstructing a proceeding. government official for theft and attempted concealment of the theft of $150,000 in secret DEA funds. He was sentenced on November 4.
Federal authorities accused Zilke of laundering money on behalf of drug cartels for five years starting in 2015. The case against Zilke and his associates began that year when an undercover DEA agent posing as a money launderer made contact with Zilke.
As part of a guilty plea, federal officials said, Zilke admitted to telling the undercover agent that he had a client in Europe who needed hundreds of millions of dollars to relocate to Mexico and that he could use a Dallas charity’s bank account to launder money. money.
Prosecutors said the undercover agent helped Zilke move that money by allowing him to use bank accounts associated with companies that often handled large sums of money.
They alleged that Zilke and his associates also arranged numerous collections of money from drug dealers across the country and deposited them into various bank accounts, some of which were controlled by at least two other suspects in the case. The suspects were identified as Jeffrey Mark Thompson, 63, of Dallas, and Gustavo Adolfo Aldana-Martinez, 58, of Pico Rivera, California. Both men were found guilty in the case.
Zilke and the two men each received a commission corresponding to a percentage of the amount laundered through their respective accounts, according to court documents. Prosecutors did not say what that percentage was.
At one point during the investigation, federal officials said, Zilke offered to cooperate and report the money laundering organization. Investigators gave him $200,000 to give to Thompson.
The intention was for Thompson to transfer the money through his bank accounts and eventually return the funds to the DEA’s secret accounts, federal prosecutors said in a written statement.
“However, approximately two weeks after the money was delivered, Zilke returned to Thompson’s residence and collected $150,000 without notifying DEA agents,” the release states. “After this theft of government funds, he repeatedly lied to agents about the money and explained why it was taking so long to receive wire transfers totaling $200,000. »
Thompson, who is awaiting sentencing, pleaded guilty in November 2023 to conspiracy to aid and abet drug distribution, money laundering and concealing the laundering of money from proceeds of drug trafficking.
Aldana-Martinez, who has previously been convicted on similar charges, is serving a four-year prison sentence.
