THE FASHION INDUSTRY HAS ALWAYS BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH MOBSTERS

Blood money in LA’s fashion district: Textile brothers admit laundering drug proceeds

By Toni McAllister

MyNewsLA
December 21, 3027

A textile company in the Los Angeles fashion district and its owners pleaded guilty Thursday to federal charges for hiding more than $2.6 million in suspected drug money, including bulk currency that prosecutors say appeared to be spattered with blood.

Pacific Eurotex Corp. and sibling owners Hersel Neman, 58, and Morad Ben Neman, 57, both of Westwood, pleaded guilty to laundering drug proceeds to foreign countries through a trade-based money laundering scheme and structuring cash deposits into bank accounts by making frequent deposits of the cash in amounts less than $10,000 to avoid a bank reporting requirement that would have drawn law enforcement scrutiny, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Two co-defendants face trial in the case.

Prosecutors said that, as part of the case, Pacific Eurotex received, laundered and structured $370,000 in bulk cash from an undercover agent delivered to them in four shipments.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office contends that the defendants laundered money, “despite the fact that, on one occasion, some of the bulk currency appeared to be spattered with blood.”

U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt set June 14 for sentencing in downtown Los Angeles.