United States Court of Appeals 

For the Seventh Circuit 

Chicago, Illinois 60604 

Argued August 7, 2019 

Decided September 19, 2019 

Before 

DANIEL A. MANION, Circuit Judge 

DIANE S. SYKES, Circuit Judge 

AMY C. BARRETT, Circuit Judge

No. 18-3173 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

Plaintiff-Appellee, 

v. 

DIEGO PINEDA-SANCHEZ, 

 Defendant-Appellant.

 Appeal from the United States District 

Court for the Northern District of 

Illinois, Eastern Division. 

No. 14 CR 539 

Andrea R. Wood, 

Judge. 

O R D E R 

Diego Pineda-Sanchez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money 

laundering, 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h), and admitted that his offense involved $1.2 million in 

drug proceeds. The district judge found, however, that Pineda-Sanchez was responsible 

for laundering more than $61 million in proceeds from the United States to Mexico—a 

sum that corresponded to a 22-level increase in offense level. See U.S.S.G. 

§ 2B1.1(b)(1)(L). Based on several mitigating factors, the judge imposed a belowguidelines sentence of 180 months in prison. Pineda-Sanchez appeals his sentence and 

argues that the judge attributed the additional laundered funds to him based on 

unreliable evidence—the testimony of a cooperating coconspirator and the postarrest 

NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION 

To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 
No. 18-3173 Page 2 

interview of a codefendant. Because the judge’s consideration of this evidence was not 

improper, we affirm. 

I. Background 

Pineda-Sanchez led a conspiracy to launder drug proceeds from Mexican-based 

drug traffickers through the purchase and resale of gold. As set forth in his plea 

agreement, Pineda-Sanchez directed cartel members, including codefendant Carlos 

Parra-Pedroza, to collect and use drug proceeds to purchase scrap and fine gold from 

pawnshops and jewelers. They then shipped the gold to large refineries in Florida and 

California, and these refineries in turn wired the cash value to Parra-Pedroza and other 

coconspirators in Mexico. 

 

 Pineda-Sanchez admitted responsibility for laundering $1,183,520 in drug 

proceeds. This amount corresponds to a base offense level of 24. See U.S.S.G. §§ 2S1.1, 

2B1.1(b)(1)(I). A two-level reduction for acceptance of responsibility would drop the 

offense level to 22, see id. § 3E1.1(a), which together with his criminal-history category of 

I would yield a guidelines range of 41 to 51 months. The government maintained, 

however, that the total value of the laundered funds was much, much higher—

$100 million—a sum corresponding to a base offense level of 32, see id. §§ 2S1.1, 

2B1.1(b)(1)(M), and a guidelines range exceeding the statutory maximum of 240 months 

in prison, see 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a). 

 The district court held an evidentiary hearing to determine the amount of 

laundered funds. A Homeland Security agent testified about his knowledge of the 

operation based in part on his communications with a cooperating witness and his 

participation in a codefendant’s postarrest interview. The agent had watched 

coconspirator Juvenal Torres repeatedly drive to a residence in southwest Chicago, then 

to jewelry stores, and then back to the residence, leaving with several shipping boxes. 

Those boxes, the agent later discovered, were being sent to a gold-trading company in 

South Florida called Golden Opportunities. The government introduced records 

(obtained during the execution of an unrelated search warrant) showing that Golden 

Opportunities received more than $98 million in gold from “Shopping Silver,” a 

fictitious company name used by Parra-Pedroza. 

 

After a year of surveillance, agents conducted a traffic stop of Torres and found 

him with a large amount of drug proceeds. Some months later Torres was confronted 

with evidence about his money-laundering activities, and at this point he agreed to 

cooperate with the government. He described the operation, identified both Parra-
No. 18-3173 Page 3 

Pedroza and Pineda-Sanchez, and explained their roles in the scheme. Torres estimated 

that he had laundered $23 million as part of the operation.1 And to support the 

government’s undercover investigation, he agreed to reestablish contact with ParraPedroza, resume his role in receiving drug proceeds, purchasing gold, and sending it to 

Golden Opportunities. 

During the undercover investigation, Torres was directed by Pineda-Sanchez 

and Parra-Pedroza to collect and launder at least $2.4 million that did not go through 

Golden Opportunities. This sum included $1,484,789 that the government intercepted 

from couriers attempting to bring money to Torres; $588,787 that agents wired to a bank 

account at the direction of Pineda-Sanchez and Parra-Pedroza as part of the undercover 

operation; and $322,116 in gold that Torres sent to another refinery, Barba International. 

 Agents eventually arrested Parra-Pedroza and questioned him. He told the 

officers that Pineda-Sanchez had recruited him into the money-laundering conspiracy 

in either 2010 or 2011. Parra-Pedroza estimated his role in the laundering operation at 

$100 million. He said that he first laundered money for Pineda-Sanchez and another 

individual, with Pineda-Sanchez generating most of his business. After July 2012, 

however, he laundered money solely for Pineda-Sanchez. He also identified PinedaSanchez as the operation’s main conduit to Mexican cartel members. 

At sentencing the judge credited Parra-Pedroza’s postarrest statements, which 

she deemed consistent with and corroborated by records and other testimony. She 

found that Pineda-Sanchez was responsible for laundering approximately $61 million in 

drug proceeds. In arriving at this figure, the judge first considered how much of the 

$98 million laundered through Golden Opportunities was attributable to PinedaSanchez. Based on Parra-Pedroza’s statement that Pineda-Sanchez generated most of 

his business, the judge concluded that Pineda-Sanchez could be held accountable for 

51% of the $81.3 million Golden Opportunities received from Shopping Silver prior to 

July 2012—about $41 million. Golden Opportunities also received $17.5 million from 

Shopping Silver after July 2012 when Parra-Pedroza worked exclusively with Pineda-

 

1 Torres testified at the evidentiary hearing that he pleaded guilty to laundering 

$23 million. He explained that in exchange for his cooperation, the government agreed 

to recommend a sentence 70% below the recommended guidelines range. 
No. 18-3173 Page 4 

Sanchez. Finally, the judge added the $2.4 million unrelated to Golden Opportunities 

that Pineda-Sanchez and Parra-Pedroza had directed Torres to launder. 

 

This $61 million figure correlated with a 22-level increase under the guidelines, 

see U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(1)(L), boosting the base offense level to 30, see id. § 2S1.1(a). The 

judge added another six levels because Pineda-Sanchez knew the laundered funds were 

the proceeds of a drug crime, see id. § 2S1.1(b)(1)(B), four levels for a leadership role, see 

id. § 3B1.1(a), and four levels for being in the business of laundering funds, see id.

§ 2S1.1(b)(2). She then subtracted two levels for acceptance of responsibility. See id.

§ 3E1.1(a). Based on the resulting offense level of 42 and a criminal history category of I, 

the guidelines range was the statutory maximum of 240 months in prison. See 18 U.S.C. 

§ 1956(a). The judge then noted that there were “many” mitigating factors in PinedaSanchez’s favor, including his guilty plea, his family’s reliance on him for financial 

support, his lack of involvement in any violence or threats of violence, and the absence 

of any prior criminal history. She imposed a below guidelines sentence of 180 months. 

II. Discussion 

 On appeal Pineda-Sanchez challenges the district court’s decision to hold him 

responsible for $61 million of laundered funds. He first questions the judge’s decision to 

credit Torres’s estimate that he laundered $23 million. This figure, he says, is unreliable 

both because it is “an exceedingly difficult mathematical estimate” and because Torres 

had an “obvious incentive to embellish the scope” of the money-laundering scheme to 

curry favor with the government. 

But the accuracy of Torres’s estimate is irrelevant because the judge did not rely 

on it to reach the $61 million figure. Rather, roughly $58 million of the $61 million 

estimate was based on records obtained during the execution of the search warrant at 

Golden Opportunities. And the remaining $2.4 million did not come from Torres’s 

estimate either—$1.5 million was seized by the government; the remainder was sent to 

Barba International or wired to an international account. 

To the extent Pineda-Sanchez contests the $2.4 million based on Torres’s 

credibility, its inclusion in the $61 million calculation would not affect his guidelines 

range. Pineda-Sanchez was subject to a 22-level increase in his base offense level 

because the total amount of laundered funds was between $25 million and $65 million. 

See U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(1)(L). Whether he was responsible for $58 million or $61 million, 

his base offense level would remain the same. Thus, even if the judge should have 
No. 18-3173 Page 5 

ignored the $2.4 million, any mistake would be harmless. See United States v. Haywood, 

777 F.3d 430, 433 (7th Cir. 2015). 

 

Pineda-Sanchez also contends that the judge’s $61 million estimate is flawed 

because she based her calculations on Parra-Pedroza’s unreliable postarrest statements. 

Those statements were not credible, he maintains, because the agent who testified about 

the interview did not speak Spanish—the language in which the interview was 

primarily conducted—and could not have known whether Parra-Pedroza was telling 

the truth. Pineda-Sanchez primarily relies on United States v. Palmer, 248 F.3d 569 (7th 

Cir. 2001), where we vacated the defendant’s sentence because he pleaded guilty to 

possessing a small amount (4.7 grams) of crack yet was held accountable for more than 

150 grams. Id. at 570–71. We took issue with the sentencing judge’s reliance on 

testimony from a U.S. Marshal that a third party (unavailable to testify in court) had 

attributed 241 grams to the defendant. The judge noted that the particular transaction to 

which the marshal testified was over two years old and that the judge made no 

credibility finding regarding the one person who did have firsthand knowledge of the 

incident. Id. at 571. 

The circumstances warranting reversal in Palmer are not present here. Unlike 

Palmer the judge here made an express credibility finding regarding the individual with 

firsthand knowledge. She explicitly said that she was crediting Parra-Pedroza’s 

statements because they were consistent and corroborated by other evidence. Nor did 

the judge rely solely on the agent’s account of the conversation; she stated that she 

reviewed all exhibits in the case, among them a video recording and transcript of ParraPedroza’s interview. And to the extent the judge relied on the agent’s characterization, 

his inability to speak Spanish is immaterial because a translator was present throughout 

the interview. Pineda-Sanchez has not challenged the accuracy of the translation. 

Finally, Pineda-Sanchez contends that he lacked a meaningful opportunity to 

challenge Parra-Pedroza’s account of events. But a judge may consider evidence at 

sentencing that would be inadmissible at trial, including hearsay. See United States v. 

Ghiassi, 729 F.3d 690, 695 (7th Cir. 2013). In any event, it would not matter that PinedaSanchez had no opportunity to challenge Parra-Pedroza because the Sixth 

Amendment’s Confrontation Clause does not apply once guilt has been established. Id.

at 695–96. And Parra-Pedroza’s statements—corroborated by Torres’s testimony, 

Pineda-Sanchez’s plea agreement, seized records, and recorded phone calls—bore a 
No. 18-3173 Page 6 

“sufficient indicia of reliability” for the judge to consider them. United States v. Mays, 

593 F.3d 603, 608 (7th Cir. 2010). 

AFFIRMED