Money Laundering Charges in Routine White Collar Case Against Civil Rights Attorney

It seems like there are more and more cases of money laundering charges being added onto routine white collar cases. One has to wonder if Congress intended for this statute to be used this way. (See Teresa E. Adams, Tacking on Money Laundering Charges to White Collar Crimes: What Did Congress Intend, and What Are the Courts Doing?, 17 Ga. St. L.Rev. 531 (2000)). For example, in a press release of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, one sees that a civil rights attorney was convicted of bankruptcy and tax charges.  But in addition to the bankruptcy and tax charges were convictions for "seventeen counts of money laundering (engaging in monetary transactions in criminally-derived property)." And its no wonder that the Government would want to add the money laundering charges as the tax and bankruptcy charges have a statutory maximum of five years, while the money laundering charges have a maximum of ten years.  But were these extra charges really necessary in this case, a case of a civil rights attorney who the LATimes describes as having "brought hundreds of cases against the Los Angeles Police Department and other law enforcement agencies."

Press Release - Download postverdict_press_release.pdf

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