PORTLAND, Ore.— A Lake Oswego, Oregon, man pleaded responsible immediately to trafficking cocaine and laundering the proceeds by a enterprise checking account to purchase cryptocurrency.
Michael Wayne Frost, 47, pleaded responsible to distributing greater than 50 kilograms of cocaine and laundering the cash from promoting the cocaine.
In accordance to courtroom paperwork, legislation enforcement officers engaged in a number of managed purchases of cocaine from Frost. On July 2, 2024, a federal search warrant was served on Frost’s residence in Lake Oswego. Brokers seized a kilogram of cocaine and about $20,000 in money from the residence. Frost admitted to promoting between 10-12 kilograms of cocaine per week. Brokers later utilized for added warrants and seized roughly $509,000 in money and cryptocurrency tied to the cocaine gross sales. Frost deposited some of the money right into a enterprise checking account he managed and then transferred funds to Robinhood, a platform he used to put money into cryptocurrency, in an effort to launder the drug proceeds.
On August 21, 2024, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a seven-count indictment charging Frost with distributing cocaine and cash laundering.
Frost pleaded responsible immediately to one depend of cocaine distribution and one depend of cash laundering. He additionally agreed to forfeit all of the seized cryptocurrency and money.
Frost faces a most sentence of life in jail, a compulsory minimal sentence of 10 years in jail, a ten million greenback advantageous, and 5 years of supervised launch. He shall be sentenced on January 7, 2026, earlier than a U.S. District Court docket Decide.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Workplace, Homeland Safety Investigations, and the Asset Restoration and Money Laundering Unit at america Lawyer’s Workplace. It’s being prosecuted by Kemp Strickland and Christopher Cardani, Assistant U.S. Attorneys for the District of Oregon.
