SPT 12-Dec-89: Currency dealers accused of laundering cash
Mark Dallara
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Currency dealers accused of laundering cash
by BRUCE VIELMETTI
DAVE MILLER
December 12, 1989
St. Petersburg Times
CLEARWATER - The financial planner said his client wanted to invest
$100,000 in gold bullion, and keep any record of the transaction secret
because the cash was untaxed proceeds of an illegal gambling operation.
Sales personnel at a Clearwater rare coin, bullion and currency exchange,
Bernstein, McCaffrey & Lee, replied that they could convert the money into
gold and rare coins with nary a trace, according to the internal Revenue
Service (IRS).
About noon Monday, federal agents raided the business at 401 Cleveland St.
in downtown Clearwater. Arrested were Grant Boshoff, 19, of 1273 Pierce
St, No. 1, and Lawrence Spencer, 43. The firm's owner, Ronald W.
Bernstein, was arrested later in Orlando.
All three are charged with money laundering after a seven-month undercover
investigation by the IRS.
Boshoff and Spencer were released on $50,000 bail. Bernstein is scheduled
to appear before a federal magistrate in Orlando today.
The IRS has been interested in coin and currency exchanges for some time.
A recent newsletter alerted local agents to moneylaundering operations
that were being operated from such businesses.
According to a sworn statement from IRS Agent Angelo Troncoso, an IRS
agent posing as a financial planner first contacted the Bernstein firm in
April.
Stewart Hanick and Joseph Urich assured the agent that a coin purchase
could be made with cash, and that no audit trail would result since they
would use false names and deposit the payments in increments smaller than
$10,000, the amount that requires a disclosure form to be filed with the
govemment.
Both Hanick and Urich later left the firm, according to Troncoso's
affidavit, and were not named in the complaint against the other three
men.
Al Demeter, office manager for IRS criminal investigations in Tampa, would
not comment Monday on whether Hanick and Urich are still under
investigation.
In July, Urich introduced the undercover agent to Boshoff, the affidavit
states. Over the course of several more meetings and phone calls, Boshoff
assured the agent that the coin purchase could not be traced to the
"client."
Boshoff also told the agent of another customer who concealed $14,000 in
$100 bills inside hollowed books, and sent them to Boshoff to deposit.
On Oct. 17, two IRS agents met with Bernstein, Spencer and Boshoff, and
paid $40,000 in cash as a down payment on 101 ounces of American Eagle
gold coins, according to the affidavit, and later accepted the coins.
Boshoff shredded the invoice, the report states.
But Boshoff later told the agent that the firm decided it was very risky
to launder money, and said that any further transactions should involve
numismatic coins, which offered more profit to Boshoffs firm.
The agent set up a second purchase for Monday, the day of the arrests.
In an interview earlier this year, Bernstein said his company sold
$4-million worth of investment coins in 1988. Demeter, the IRS spokesman,
said he could not comment on whether any coins were seized in Monday's
raid.
None of the three defendants could be reached for comment.
Staff writer Dave Miller contributed to this story.
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Mark Dallara
mdal...@kcii.com
OCCUPIED CLEARWATER:
Sun, Sea, Sand... and the criminal cult of $cientology
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List
>From: mdal...@kcii.com (Mark Dallara)
>Date: 5/16/99 10:14 PM Eastern Daylight Time
>Message-id: <374a7b80...@news.newsguy.com>
>
>
>--BEGIN QUOTE--
>
>Currency dealers accused of laundering cash
>
>by BRUCE VIELMETTI
> DAVE MILLER
>
>December 12, 1989
>St. Petersburg Times
>
I see this was written in 1989.
"In this world, if you go into the mountains, and decide to go deeper and yet
deeper, instead you will emerge at the gate ....."
SHINMEN MUSASHI