Pubdate: Sat, 29 Jun 2002
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Section: New York Region
Author: Benjamin Weiser
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1188/a05.html

EX-BROKER PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO CHARGES OF MONEY LAUNDERING

A former broker for Lehman Brothers pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges 
that she helped launder $15 million in drug money for a former Mexican 
politician.

The broker, Consuelo Marquez, 39, sat quietly at a hearing in Federal 
District Court in Manhattan, speaking softly as she entered her plea and 
acknowledged to a magistrate judge that she understood her rights.

Ms. Marquez was indicted this week on charges that she conspired with Mario 
Villanueva, the former governor of the state of Quintana Roo on Mexico's 
Caribbean coast, to hide drug-money payoffs that he received from one of 
Mexico's most powerful cocaine organizations, the Southeast Cartel.

The indictment also charges that when Mr. Villanueva became a fugitive in 
1999, Ms. Marquez made a concerted effort to move his money from Lehman 
Brothers accounts to accounts that were harder to trace.

The judge, Debra Freeman, ordered Ms. Marquez released on $500,000 personal 
recognizance bond, which means that she would not have to put up any cash 
or property, but that she and other family members signing the bond would 
be liable if she fled.

The government had sought stiffer bond terms, asking that she put up 
$100,000 in cash or property to secure the bond. A federal prosecutor, 
Anirudh Bansal, argued that Ms. Marquez was a flight risk because she had 
ties to Mexico and, if convicted, could face a heavy prison term. He also 
noted that she had substantial financial assets, including a New York 
apartment worth about $1 million.

But Ms. Marquez's lawyer, Robert G. Morvillo, argued that his client had 
more incentive to stay in the United States than to flee. She is an 
American citizen, he said, who was educated at Barnard College and who has 
spent virtually her entire life in New York City, where she has relatives 
and is raising a 5-year-old son as a single parent. "There's no way she's 
going to run away," Mr. Morvillo said.

Saying that she also needed to marshal her financial assets for her legal 
defense, he added that she planned to fight the charges, and had "great 
confidence in her ability to prevail at trial."
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