FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The subject of a South Florida federal money laundering sting asked two informants posing as cocaine traffickers for a gruesome and violent favor, according to court documents.
According to the FBI, Shlomo Akuka had a multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency debt with a Brazilian man to settle. And agents said he was not only willing to have that man kidnapped, but his daughters as well ― and to have their hands and fingers cut off until he got what he was owed.
Akuka, 30, of Hallandale Beach, was scheduled to face a Fort Lauderdale federal judge Monday morning on money laundering and money laundering conspiracy charges following his arrest Friday.
A federal criminal complaint said the investigation into Akuka stems from a probe begun in January when FBI confidential sources “began identifying suspected money launderers operating in South Florida.”
Authorities said the initial investigation “focused on criminal organizations suspected of engaging in money laundering and primarily based in Orlando (with a South Florida presence) but shifted to investigating suspected money launderers in Miami,” and in June, “a mutual contact and suspected associate of the Brazilian criminal organization coordinated a meeting” between the informants and Akuka.
The complaint states that the sources were “instructed to request cryptocurrency from the suspected money launderers and have it sent to an FBI-owned wallet.”
Authorities said they arranged to meet with the Israeli-born Akuka on June 10 at a Hollywood restaurant “to make initial introductions and discuss the terms of the planned monetary transactions.”
Akuka, they said, brought along an associate. Court documents state they all initially discussed a “small” $30,000 crypto transaction and increasing the amounts in further meetings.
Authorities said when Akuka asked the informants about the nature of their businesses, they responded that “they did not like to talk about that” because they were “just getting acquainted.”
Akuka, the complaint states, responded that he “now understands everything,” later telling the informants that things were “very hot” ― as in law enforcement activity was high ― and that he needed to be “careful.”
Agents said Akuka told the duo “he was a professional” and his organization “had bank accounts at several large institutions” affiliated with businesses that could provide invoices for the sources’ banking transactions.
The complaint states the group then went to an office building at 221 W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. and gave Akuka $30,000 cash, from which he took a 5% fee, to convert the proceeds into Tether cryptocurrency.
Three days later, Akuka and the informants met at an office at 3440 Hollywood Blvd. and went to a fourth-floor office “believed to be leased or owned by an unindicted co-conspirator” for another crypto transaction, court documents state.
Authorities said the sources brought $55,000 to be laundered. They said Akuka asked one of the informants in Spanish if he “worked with H,” meaning heroin, and explained “that he had a problem with a particular person and group that worked with ‘H.’”
The source told Akuka that he worked with “coca,” Spanish for cocaine, investigators said. Authorities said the co-conspirator followed up in English by asking, “You have a connection to cocaine? You do or you don’t…me too."
The informant told Akuka “he moved a lot of money on a weekly basis” and “sold a lot of kilos on a weekly basis,” the complaint states.
The co-conspirator then took out cocaine, offered one of the sources some, and told him he was going to “do a blast,” the complaint states. The informant declined.
Authorities said the informants and Akuka were only able to partially complete the transaction, converting a little more than $14,000 of the funds into Tether.
They were able to send the rest four days later, the complaint states. During that meeting, Akuka asked the source in Spanish “if he needed more clients to sell ‘flour’ to,” street slang for cocaine, according to the FBI.
The complaint outlines three more meetings to convert a total of nearly $200,000 in what Akuka thought was cocaine cash into crypto.
Authorities said in the second of the three meetings, on July 17, things took a darker turn.
Akuka, investigators said, told the informants about a Brazilian man who owed him $3 million in crypto and wanted to know if the sources could help kidnap him, his fiancée “and/or his daughters” to get it settled.
Akuka told the informants that he “previously attempted to hire a separate crew to conduct the kidnapping, but that they made no agreement because that crew wanted 50% of the debt owed to do the job,” the complaint states, telling them “he was tracking the fiancé’s car through a mobile application and a GPS tracker placed on her car.”
According to the FBI, Akuka said he’d offer them 20% to carry out the kidnapping and said that the hands of one of the victim’s daughters “should be cut off until (he) paid the debt.”
Investigators said Akuka brought up the kidnapping proposal during the third meeting, on July 23, in which the sources brought along two undercover law enforcement officers.
According to the complaint, Akuka told the undercover officers that they could kidnap the man “and cut off his fingers to force payment,” but said he thought that “kidnapping (his daughters) would be easier and was willing to have their fingers cut off as well.”
Authorities said the undercover officers requested an upfront payment to carry out the plot and Akuka offered them $10,000.
Akuka, however, would be the one ending up captive following his arrest by federal agents on Friday. He was booked into the Broward Main Jail, where he remained held ahead of his scheduled 11 a.m. court appearance Monday.
If convicted, he could spend decades in federal prison.
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