‘This has been the biggest mistake of my life’: Oakland business owner confesses before he’s sentenced to prison for laundering drug money

OAKLAND — A resident of Oakland has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for using his money transfer business to launder drug proceeds for narcotics dealers, court records show.

Felipe de Jesus Ornelas Mora, 51, wrote an apology letter to the court calling his decision “the worst mistake of my life” and that it cost him his business, Rincon Musical, as well as his freedom. After being brought up on federal charges in 2022, Ornelas Mora lost the business and ended up working as a shelf re-stocker for a local retailer.

“There is no excuse for what I have done. Regardless of my fear of saying no to the narcotics traffickers who came to my business, I should have called the police,” he wrote in the apology letter. “I would do anything to go back in time and do the right thing.”

Ornelas Mora was charged along with three others, whose cases remain pending. His co-defendants, Veronica Mora, Grisela Cancelada-Liceaga and Yoselin Perez-Ramirez, worked at a similar business in Oakland called America Latina. Both Mora and Perez-Ramirez also worked as cashiers at Rincon Musical, prosecutors say. All four of them were charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Prosecutors asked for a two-year prison term, arguing that Ornelas Mora showed sophistication by using fake IDs and small cash transfers to Mexico and Honduras to avoid government detection, all while well aware he was laundering money for drug dealers.

The defense argued for leniency, saying that Ornelas Mora’s family would suffer if he was incarcerated for a lengthy period of time, and that he has health problems, including losing hearing in both ears after falling into a sewer drain as a child.