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Jackson resident, others disguised alleged drug money by paying others to send money orders to homebuilder
The main player in an elaborate scheme to disguise more than $1.1 million in cash payments to a Texas homebuilder will spend the next three years in a federal prison. No one knew at the time of Jackson resident Adrian Wilson's arrest the reasoning behind the scheme to disguise the cash payments. "He admitted it was drug money," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Cindy Eldridge.
3 sentenced to prison in $1M scheme
Jackson resident, others disguised alleged drug money by paying others to send money orders to homebuilder
By Jimmie E. Gates
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The main player in an elaborate scheme to disguise more than $1.1 million in cash payments to a Texas homebuilder will spend the next three years in a federal prison.
No one knew at the time of Jackson resident Adrian Wilson's arrest the reasoning behind the scheme to disguise the cash payments.
"He admitted it was drug money," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Cindy Eldridge.
The Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation New Orleans office and the FBI's Jackson office announced Friday that Wilson and two others had been sentenced in the case.
All three pleaded guilty to charges in the case.
Wilson, age unavailable, was sentenced to 37 months in prison followed by 36 months of supervised release. Wilson is in custody and awaiting assignment to a federal prison.
Wilson agreed to forfeit a $1.5 million home in Texas and $368,000 in cash in bank accounts.
Wilson's attorney, Thomas Powell, said his client's money should be referred to as alleged drug money.
"He isn't happy about going to prison, but the sentence is fair," Powell said.
Also sentenced were:
Jeffery Thomas of Byram to eight months in prison and eight months of home confinement followed by three years of supervised release.
Kathryn Brasfield, a former Trustmark National Bank employee, to 23 months in prison followed by 24 months of supervised release.
Wilson organized the scheme, from August 2003 through February 2004, to pay for a three-bedroom, 5,100-square-foot home he had built in the Dallas suburb of Cedar Hill, Texas.
He had others obtain cashier's checks and money orders for less than $10,000 and send them to the Texas homebuilder, court documents show. Authorities allege Wilson paid others a fee for handling the transactions.
Wilson was accused of causing a domestic institution to fail to file a currency transaction report and structuring transactions to evade reporting requirements.
Brasfield, age unknown, whose last known address was in Southaven, faced similar charges as Wilson.
Thomas, accused of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, had assumed the money was from illegal activity but wasn't positive, Eldridge said.
Prosecutors allege the group was converting large sums of money at several financial institutions, including Trustmark, BankPlus, Merchant & Farmers Bank, Jackson VA Federal Credit Union and Union Planters, which is now Regions Bank.
Along with being converted to checks, some money was deposited into accounts.
At one point, Wilson delivered $500,000 in a black duffel bag to Thomas and later gave him instructions on how much should be sent to the builder in Texas, Eldridge said.
Brasfield assisted in disguising roughly $400,000, prosecutors said.
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007703170364
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