WESTWOOD—The owner of Elyahouzadeh’s R.S.D. Trading Company, pled guilty to federal money laundering charges on Monday, February 11. Saeed Elyahouzadeh, 53, of Westwood, was caught during an undercover investigation where he agreed to conceal what was described to him as $200,000 in drug trafficking money.
The owner/operator of the precious metals’ jewelry business submitted his plea to a felony money laundering count before U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer.
The business where the laundering occurred is located on 640 Hill St. in downtown Los Angeles in the middle of Los Angeles jewelry district.
Elyzhouzadeh was involved in four money transactions with the intent to launder illegal drug proceeds through his jewelry business between April 2015 and December 2017, according to his plea agreement.
Court documents reveal that it was an undercover federal agent who told Elyahouzadeh that the proceeds being laundered were the result of illegal drug trafficking. The defendant agreed to launder the money in exchange for five to six percent of the given amount.
The first incident transpired on April 22, 2015, which resulted in $18,000 in cocaine sales, where he made $1,000 for laundering money. In the weeks that followed that meeting, Elyahouzadeh arranged for multiple checks to be deposited into a bank account via the undercover agent, according to court documents. On three separate occasions – in June 2015, November 2017 and December 2017 – Elyahouzadeh agreed to launder a total of $200,000 from the undercover agent in exchange for a total of $11,000, court documents show.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Judge Fischer is scheduled to sentence Elyahouzadeh on July 15, 2019. He could face up to a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.
