Another only-in-South-Florida-story. And Paula McMahon has all of the details. Yikes:
Well-known Broward lawyer and lobbyist Alan Koslow was charged Thursday with a federal money-laundering conspiracy after prosecutors said he and a friend laundered what they believed was cash linked to illegal gambling and drug dealing.
Koslow, 62, and Susan Mohr, 57, of Delray Beach, were criminally charged by prosecutors Thursday. The manner in which they were charged suggests both have already reached plea agreements with prosecutors.
Koslow is scheduled to surrender Thursday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale. Mohr is to turn herself in on Tuesday. The criminal charges are linked to an undercover FBI sting that began 3 1/2 years ago.
Koslow accepted $220,000 in cash that he agreed to launder for the undercover FBI agents between December 2012 and August 2013, according to court records. In exchange, he was paid $8,500, investigators wrote.
He first met with two agents in November 2012 and agreed he and Mohr would help them conceal the source of cash, which Koslow was told came from an illegal gambling business and the sale of cocaine and counterfeit Viagra, prosecutor Neil Karadbil wrote in court records.
After the first few transactions, Koslow again met with the sources of the money in February 2013.
"Defendant Koslow met with the undercover agents, discussed laundering $50,000 a month for the next two years for the undercover agents, and explained how their attorney-client relationship would protect them," Karadbil wrote.
The final meeting was Aug. 22, 2013, when Koslow met with the agents in a hotel room in Fort Lauderdale and accepted $50,000 in cash in a FedEx envelope, investigators wrote.
8,500? Was he on the money laundering wheel?
ReplyDeleteHe committed the crime in August of 2013 and has remained free while working out his deal? Must be nice.
ReplyDeleteI don't practice criminal law, so I'm sure that I'm missing something major here. But if he didn't actually launder money (since the money was not from illegal source) and could not launder money (since the money was not from illegal source), how is it that he committed a crime?
ReplyDeleteIt feels to be the equivalent of me dreaming that my brother shot and killed a man with my gun. Upon waking, and believing the dream to be true, I throw my gun in the ocean. Am I guilty of destroying evidence and an accomplice to murder?
3:05PM: And you passed the criminal law portion of the bar exam how?
ReplyDelete3:05
ReplyDeleteYou asked for a miracle I give you the F...B...I...
8:07am, there is no criminal law portion of the bar exam, there is only state and federal. But the question still stands. The defendant appears to have had an intent, but where is no underlying criminal act.
ReplyDeleteI mean state and "multi-state" (whatever the F*** that means).
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