Florida Man Sentenced In Drug Proceeds Money Laundering Case

 HARRISBURG – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that on September 29, 2020, Michael Sean Riley, age 52, of Ocala, Florida, was sentenced to 72 months’ imprisonment and ordered to forfeit up to $800,000, by United States District Court Judge Christopher C. Conner for his role in a money laundering conspiracy involving $800,000 in drug proceeds.

According to United States Attorney David J. Freed, Michael Riley arranged with John T. Oiler to rent a storage unit in Baltimore and travel to Pennsylvania to take possession of more than $800,000 of cash drug proceeds Michael Riley skimmed from a larger load of cash.  Oiler took the vast majority of those proceeds and stored them in the rented unit in Baltimore.  Michael Riley then contacted his cousin, Timothy Riley, then a Narcotics Agent of the PA Attorney General’s Office Bureau of Narcotics Investigations Mobile Street Crimes Unit, and turned over the rest of the cash proceeds to him and other agents from the Mobile Street Crimes Unit.  Michael Riley paid Timothy Riley three cash payments totaling $48,000 which Timothy Riley subsequently laundered.  Oiler and Michael Riley each netted about $400,000 of the proceeds and each conducted numerous financial transactions with the cash drug proceeds.

Coconspirator Timothy B. Riley was sentenced to 36 months’ imprisonment and conspirator John T. Oiler was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment.

The case was investigated by the Harrisburg Offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, with the full assistance of the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys James T. Clancy and Carlo Marchioli prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. The Department of Justice reinvigorated PSN in 2017 as part of the Department’s renewed focus on targeting violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce violent crime.