Federal agents arrested Marcos Arturo Kleiman Tronllan, a Mexican citizen and lawful permanent U.S. resident who is the chief executive officer of cross-border currency exchange company MoneyFlip LLC, on Thursday morning in Miami for allegedly hiring a hitman to murder someone over an unpaid debt.
Kleiman, 40, is the CEO of MoneyFlip LLC, a San Diego-based business.
Although the case ended in a murder-for-hire scheme, the federal investigation began with a probe into money exchange businesses in San Diego and Imperial Counties, where agents identified Kleiman as a suspected money launderer.
Undercover Homeland Security agents posing as drug traffickers contacted Kleiman in February 2026 to ask him to convert U.S. dollars they claimed came from drug sales into cryptocurrency.
“I need to know if … what you have is clean or if it’s dirty,” Kleiman said, according to court documents.
“I mean, I don’t get scared, dude.”
To facilitate the illicit financial transactions, Kleiman allegedly created a unique email account, shared its password with the undercover agents, and announced they would communicate by leaving draft emails in the account so no emails were ever sent. In total, Kleiman converted approximately $750,000 of United States currency into cryptocurrency and transmitted those crypto coins into an undercover federal agent’s wallet.
During the operation, the discussions turned darker. Prosecutors say Kleiman allegedly asked the agents to help recover a debt from a Mexican businessman — and to kill him.
Kleiman agreed to pay $40,000 to kidnap and murder the man, delivering an initial $5,000 “deposit” via a third party to an agent in San Diego in May, according to the criminal complaint.
The photos showed a man lying dead in a field with a banner covering his body reading “Por ser Rata,” which translates to “For being a thief.”
“Then, in early July of 2026, one of the undercover agents asked Kleiman for a second $5,000 deposit to ‘reserve the savages’ and told Kleiman ‘whether [the victim] pays or not he will be left dead on the side of the road,'” prosecutors said in the news release.
“Kleiman responded by telling the undercover agent, ‘I will get those 5 ready for you in 2-3 weeks.'”
According to the complaint, Kleiman later paid the second “deposit” for the murder.
On July 28, the undercover agents showed Kleiman three photographs and one video purporting to show the victim captured, tortured and killed. One of the agents then told Kleiman that “they already killed the guy, so those people need to get paid.”
“Okay. Count on…count on it.” The next day, July 29, Kleiman delivered a $5,000 cash payment to the undercover agents and transmitted approximately 25,000 USDT into an undercover cryptocurrency wallet as the final payments for the victim’s murder.
All of the payment amounts and timeline details emerged in court documents filed after Kleiman’s arrest.
In the viral moment that triggered the investigation, Kleiman had been under scrutiny for allegedly running a money-laundering operation through his currency exchange business, converting drug proceeds into cryptocurrency. Federal agents had approached him undercover in February 2026, posing as drug traffickers seeking to move illicit funds. Over months of communication through their secret draft-email system, Kleiman bragged about his lack of fear and began openly discussing his financial grievance with a Mexican businessman. When the agents—now operating as hired killers—told him they could handle the debt collection permanently, Kleiman seized the opportunity and began paying thousands in cash and cryptocurrency to secure the hit.
Kleiman was arrested Thursday morning in Miami, where he currently resides. He’s expected to be extradited to San Diego to face federal charges.