Flight Attendants Charged With Money Laundering In Miami

Four flight attendants for American Airlines were arrested and charged with money laundering after police seized $22,671 between them at Miami International Airport on Monday (Oct. 21), according to a report by CNN.

The attendants were going through customary customs checks when the money was discovered. One of them said he had $100 on him, and then changed his statement later to say he had $9,000.

None of the airline workers had a license to transport money. Another attendant had $7,300, and a different one had $6,371. It’s unknown how much money the fourth attendant had on her.

All four, Carlos Alberto Munoz-Moyano, Miaria Delpilar Roman-Strick, Maria Isabel Wilson-Ossandon and Maria Beatriz Pasten-Cuzmar were charged with money laundering by evading reporting requirements and transporting money illegally. 

In other money laundering news, the former head of Danske Bank’s arm in Estonia was found dead days after he disappeared. 

Police had been searching for Aivar Rehe, 56, since he left his home in Tallinn on Sept. 23.

Rehe was a witness in a $230 billion ongoing money-laundering investigation, but he was not a suspect.

His body was found in the morning near his home on Wednesday (Sept. 25), Estonian Police and Border Guard Board spokeswoman Tuuli Härson told The Wall Street Journal. Police have said they don’t suspect any third-party involvement, and the case is being treated as suicide.

“There are no signs of violence on the body, and there is no indication of an accident,” a police statement said. 

The bank is under investigation in the U.S., Estonia, Denmark and France over suspicious payments. The scandal centers on the Estonia branch’s handling of money flowing from Russia, Azerbaijan and Moldova. 

In 2018, the bank’s CEO, Thomas Borgen, stepped down following the investigation into the payments.

Rehe ran the bank’s operations in the country from 2006 until 2015, and he had held the line that regardless of the scandal, the bank’s anti-money laundering and customer checking procedures were all up to par.