CONFESSIONS OF A
MONEY LAUNDERER by Kenneth Rijock
Financial Crime Consultant, for World-Check
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 35
16 September 2007

What does one do when faced with 25 years to life in prison? I was charged with 20-year and 5-year felonies, but the Organised Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Force that had brought the case could certainly add up all the drugs & all the money, and come up with a life sentence pursuant to the then-mandatory Federal Sentencing Guidelines. Under the Guidelines, there is no gain time, time reduced from one sentence for good behaviour, and a life sentence would be exactly what it is, life in prison without the possibility of release. Think about what it is like to face that exposure as a defendant in a criminal case. What would you do, and how would you cope?

If I had never been caught in the act, just how did I come to be arrested? Both counts were conspiracy charges, meaning that they had enough to satisfy the basic elements of the crime:

  • Two or more persons conspired, or agreed, to commit certain crimes.
  • That I knowingly and voluntarily joined the conspiracy.
  • That a member of the conspiracy later did one or more overt acts, for the purpose of advancing or helping the conspiracy.

Being that I was advising a 200-man criminal organisation, the US Attorney was able to find a number of
minor individual participants, to whom they granted immunity, for the purpose of indicting the kingpins and their professional advisers. They also had two defendants, all former money laundering clients of mine, who had already been convicted of narcotics crimes.

These two gentlemen, who were looking at life sentences, were persuaded to give testimony against me. They would later reduce their possible life sentences to two years in Federal prison. But they still didn't have enough for a bulletproof case; there was no smoking gun, bales of cash or millions socked away in an offshore account, that had been seized. How would they get enough to indict me?

One of the kingpins had a premonition that, one day, a case would be filed against the organisation. Having a gift for languages, he moved to New York City, where he has lived in the 1960s, took a crash course in French, and moved to France, intending to evade US authorities.

Setting himself as a small-time book publisher in the south of France, he soon had a fiance, and a growing business, in which he  found refuge from his colourful past. An agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration stationed in France would later say that his accent and vocabulary were flawless.

Career criminals being creatures of habit, he was soon drawn into money laundering in Europe as an active player, and this was responsible for his arrest on charges unrelated to his US past. had he kept his nose clean, he might have eluded US law enforcement indefinitely, married, and ultimately acquired that precious French citizenship. France does not, as a rule, extradite its nationals to face criminal charges in other nations.

Whilst spending several months in a French jail, awaiting trial there, he decided to face the music in the US, rather than risk French justice. A six-footer, and a former itinerant ship's captain and drug runner, he nevertheless had a few ribs broken by some of his cell-mates. perhaps that is why he decided to cut his losses, and cooperate, and whose Grand Jury testimony incriminated yours truly.

The other blow was the disclosure by the United States Attorney that he intended to use Rule 404 evidence at my trial. Rule 404 of the Federal Rules of Evidence provides that the prosecutor may introduce at trial evidence of other, uncharged criminal conduct. After a decade of supporting narcotics trafficking organisations,  there were many, many other acts of money laundering that I had committed for other clients.

They planned to prejudice a jury against me by bringing in all my other criminal associations, and the  money laundering that I performed. Could I survive all this at trial?

Next Week: the case against me moves forward.



 


The facts and opinions stated in this article are those of the author and not those of World-Check. World-Check does not warrant the accuracy of any facts and opinions stated in this article, does not endorse them, and accepts no responsibility for them.

Read more in this exciting series

Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 73
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 72
Confessions of a Money launderer - Part 71
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 70
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 69
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 68
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 67
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 66
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 65
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 64
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 63
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 62
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 61
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 60
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 59
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 58
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 57
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 56
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 55
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 54
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 53
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 52
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 51
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 50
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 49
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 48
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 47
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 46
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 45
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 44
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 43
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 42
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 41
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 40
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 39
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 38
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 37
Confessions of a Money launderer - Part 36
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 35
Confessions of a Money launderer - Part 34
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 33
Confessions of a Money launderer - Part 32
Confessions of a Money launderer - Part 31
Confessions of a Money launderer - Part 30
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 29
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 28
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 27
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 26
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 25
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 24
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 23
Confessions of a Money Launderer - part 22
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 21
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 20
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 19
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 18
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 17
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 16
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 15
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 14
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 13
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 12
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 11
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 10
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 9
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 8
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 7
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 6
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 5
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 4
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 3
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 2
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 1
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