Cartier Jewelry Family Heir Charged with Money Laundering for Colombian Cartel

Colombian Cocaine Traffickers

Zuluaga Duque, 61, a Colombian citizen, is charged with one count of conspiring to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of conspiring to import 5 kilograms or more of cocaine into the U.S., which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Lopez Ortiz, 42, a Colombian citizen, is charged with one count of conspiring to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of conspiring to import 5 kilograms or more of cocaine into the U.S., which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Estrada Echeverry, 38, a Colombian citizen, is charged with one count of conspiring to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Alexander Areiza Ceballos, 45, a Colombian citizen, is charged with one count of conspiring to import 5 kilograms or more of cocaine into the U.S., which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Adrian Areiza Ceballos, 44, a Colombian citizen, is charged with one count of conspiring to import 5 kilograms or more of cocaine into the U.S., which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Cartier is also charged with money laundering, bank fraud, engaging in a monetary transaction in property derived from bank fraud, and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business based on Cartier’s system of U.S.-based shell companies and bank accounts that he used to operate an unlicensed over-the-counter cryptocurrency exchange.

Who is Maximilien de Hoop Cartier?

His mother, Sarah Cartier, is a direct descendant of the Cartier family of jewelers in France. His father, Daniel de Hoop, is a retired member of the Royal Family of the House of Orange in the Netherlands. He was educated in Argentina, Switzerland, and London.

Maximilien Cartier owned a wine, beer, and bottled water company, Patagonia.

According to his French Wikipedia page; he began producing wines, champagne, and cognac in the Bordeaux area of ​​France. Cartier registered its own brands worldwide and began using its Patagonia trademark to produce and import premium wines and beers from Argentina and Chile to Europe, including Quilmes, the leading brand in Argentina’s market. He has also opened a foundation “De Hoop Cartier” in Geneva, Switzerland, to help promote health care and education in Latin America and Switzerland.

In 1998, war broke out in the former Yugoslav republic of Kosovo, and Cartier lost all contact with his personal friend, Mr. Ramush Haradinaj. He subsequently discovered that Haradinaj had returned to his native country and taken control of an army of 10,000 rebel warriors.

Cartier traveled to the region to see if he could help in any way. Haradinaj explained that food and drinking water were scarce. Eager to be of assistance, Cartier traveled to nearby Greece, where he rented a warehouse in the port city of Thessaloniki. From there, he sent trucks with food, water, and basic supplies. In recognition of his personal sacrifice, Cartier received a necklace of pure solid gold, in the shape of a two-headed eagle that had the initials UCK (symbol and initials of the Kosovo Liberation Army.)

After the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, he pursued a musical career and recorded a big band style album at Capital Studios in Hollywood in 2022. The recordings featured a 50-member band and he used one of Frank Sinatra’s microphones to record.