Seattle area resident indicted for laundering millions of dollars – alleged proceeds of wire fraud scheme

Press Release

Claimed to be acting as escrow for various oil and gas investments but quickly transferred funds to other domestic and overseas accounts and bitcoin

Seattle - A 46-year-old resident of Newcastle, Washington was indicted today by a federal grand jury for conspiracy to commit money laundering, and nine counts of money laundering either by concealment or by spending, announced U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman. Geoffrey K. Auyeung was arrested on a criminal complaint August 12, 2024, and is scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment on September 5, 2024.

According to records filed in the case, investigators with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) have traced $64 million in funds coming into some 74 different bank accounts controlled by Auyeung. Many of the accounts are in the names of business entities that offered purported investments related to oil and gas. These entities include: Sea Forest International LLC.; Apex Oil and Gas Trading LLC.; Navigator Energy Logistics LLC.; Terminal Energy International Escrow Service LLC.; Energo Horizons Logistics (EA) LLC.; Legacy Energy Logistics Transport Group LLC.; and Green Tree Gateway LLC.

From at least August 2022 through August 2024, the co-schemers convinced victims to send money to what was represented as escrow accounts to purchase oil tank storage in either Rotterdam, Netherlands, or Houston. The schemers indicated that the investors could make significant profits by renting the oil tank storage they obtained to others. However, once the funds came into accounts controlled by Auyeung, the money was quickly moved into other accounts, moved offshore, or was used for the purchase of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Tether, USD Coin, and Ethereum, via cryptocurrency exchanges such as Gemini, BitStamp, and Coinbase. Much of the cryptocurrency was further transferred to accounts at the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Victims were not sent any further information on their investment and Auyeung and others simply stopped responding.

The indictment calls for the forfeiture of some $2.3 million seized from Auyeung's bank accounts. Millions more of the wire fraud proceeds that were converted to cryptocurrencies are frozen and pending seizure. HSI has confirmed 22 victims with a combined loss of $7.7 million. However, law enforcement believes many more victims may come forward.

Conspiracy to commit money laundering, and individual counts of money laundering concealment are punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Money laundering - spending, is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The charges contained in the indictment are only allegations. A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The case is being investigated by HSI.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jehiel Baer and Yunah Chung.

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Updated August 28, 2024