HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A man who was employed as a Wells Fargo bank manager in Harlingen was sentenced for his role in a nearly two-year long money laundering scheme, court records indicate.
Stephen Roland Reyna was sentenced Wednesday to 20 months in prison on a charge of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, federal records show.
An indictment charges Reyna and co-conspirator David Mares with participating in the laundering scheme from August 2016 to April 2018.
According to the indictment, Mares was a “participant in a narcotics smuggling organization,” and would ship multiple pounds of cocaine from Texas to other states. The money from the deliveries would be deposited into Wells Fargo bank accounts, where Reyna was employed as a bank manager at a branch in Harlingen, the document stated.
Co-conspirators in other states would deposit money from the shipments into the accounts, and then the cash would be withdrawn at the bank in Harlingen.
“[Reyna] would direct his employees to authorize withdrawals that involved the proceeds of the sale of the controlled substances for co-conspirators who made the withdrawals,” the indictment stated.
The indictment further states Reyna bypassed bank protocols, as well as instructed his employees to bypass bank protocols. Reyna would then be paid a portion of the cash withdrawals, the document stated.
As part of his sentencing, Reyna is ordered to serve an additional 16 months of supervised release and must report to probation 72 hours of his release, records show.
According to federal records, Mares is scheduled for sentencing on April 5.
