D.C. woman gets 2 years for role in $20M money laundering scheme

A Washington, D.C., woman was sentenced to two years in federal prison for her role in a multi-million-dollar money laundering scheme involving government agencies, schools, medical centers and other institutions across multiple states.

Judge Matthew J. Maddox of the U.S. District Court in Baltimore sentenced Lorena Perez Herrera, 29, and ordered her to pay $1,473,125.58 in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland. Herrera will also serve one year of supervised release following her prison term.

Herrera pleaded guilty in March 2025 to conspiring to engage in a large, multi-member money laundering conspiracy and admitted that nearly $1.5 million in laundered funds flowed through her participation in the scheme.

Prosecutors say the conspiracy began in 2020 and continued through November 2023, during which Herrera and her co-conspirators laundered proceeds from a large-scale wire fraud operation. The group concealed the nature, source and ownership of stolen funds by creating shell companies, opening bank accounts in those entities’ names, and routing illicit proceeds through them.

Victims included a range of institutions — among them an environmental trust, an urban redevelopment program, a medical center, a transportation and logistics company, a school district, a college and a county government, the Justice Department said.

The overall conspiracy involved more than $20 million in laundered funds tied to more than 15 victim entities, federal prosecutors said.

U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes announced the sentence alongside officials from Homeland Security Investigations, IRS Criminal Investigation and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General.

Fourteen defendants have been charged in connection with the scheme. Thirteen have pleaded guilty. One defendant, Faizou Gnora, 28, formerly of Alexandria, Virginia, remains a fugitive.

Among those previously sentenced: Victor Killen received 63 months and was ordered to pay more than $7 million in restitution; Gedeon Agbeyome received 72 months and more than $2.9 million in restitution; and Lakeisha Parker received 36 months and more than $8.3 million in restitution, according to court records.

The prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative established under Executive Order 14159, which targets criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking networks operating in the United States.