The woman said her daughter had decided to stay in China, but that she would soon return home, after illegally earning money doing piecework for a factory here.

The Securities and Exchange Commission accused them of illegally earning more than $4 million by trading on information that Mr. Vaskevitch had learned at Merrill.

The Government charged that the group illegally earned $1.5 million by trading stock options.

An anonymous letter led the S.E.C. to Mr. Levine, who was charged with illegally earning $12.6 million through the use of inside information.

The Government has said that he illegally earned $12.6 million in a five-year period by trading on inside information.

Virtually all work illegally and earn less than the going wages, but Mr. Vrioni said they would send home $250 million to $300 million this year.

Altogether, the Government charged, the group illegally earned $1.5 million in less than two weeks by trading stock options with the information about a pending corporate restructuring.

Money laundering is a process by which illegally earned money is deposited in bank accounts or in other legitimate businesses, and is then withdrawn as "clean money."

November 16: A U.S. Senate probe finds that Iraq illegally earned approximately $21.3 billion by circumventing UN sanctions between 1991 and 2003.

Mr. Boesky also settled civil charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission accusing him of illegally earning more than $50 million from inside information.