Tobacco farmer convicted of laundering stinky cash through slot machines

Tobacco farmer convicted of laundering stinky cash through slot machines at Akwesasne

By John O'Brien | jobrien@syracuse.comThe Post-Standard
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on November 08, 2013

SYRACUSE, NY -- A 67-year-old tobacco farmer was convicted today of laundering the proceeds of marijuana dealers by running the bills through slot machines at the Akwesasne Mohawk Indian Reservation in Northern New York.

A federal jury found William D. Humphries guilty of 41 counts of money-laundering, along with traveling in aid of racketeering, wire fraud conspiracy to defraud Canada of tax revenue, and conspiring to manufacture tobacco products without a license.

The jury did not reach a verdict on 143 other money-laundering charges. On those counts, he was accused of trying to conceal illegal profits before March 8, 2008.

That date was when a co-conspirator and admitted marijuana dealer, Patrick Johnson, wore a body wire and secretly recorded Humphries explaining how he was laundering the cash.

Johnson and Hank Cook owned a cigarette-making company at Akwesasne. They were paying Humphries in cash for the tobacco he supplied from his farm in South Carolina.

The cash always had a strong scent of marijuana because the cigarette makers were also heavily into selling pot, federal prosecutors said in court papers.

After he was paid in May 2006, Humphries was pulled over by police. A police dog alerted to the marijuana scent on the money, and officers seized the $88,000 in cash Humphries had in his car.
After that, Humphries started exchanging the smelly money for clean cash by putting the bills into slot machines, one by one, at the Mohawk Bingo Palace, prosecutors said.

His lawyer, Douglas Dollinger, denied Humphries was laundering the illegal profits of marijuana dealers. Humphries had figured out a system on the slot machines and was winning big, Dollinger said.

Humphries, of Lake City, S.C., faces up to 30 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue did not set a sentencing date.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was the lead investigative agency on the case. The case was prosecuted by assistant U.S. attorneys Carl Eurenius and Gwendolyn Carroll.

A federal grand jury indictment lists 178 instances between May 2006 and March 2009 when Humphries exchanged the marijuana-smelling cash for clean cash by running the money through slot machines.

The total amount of exchanged cash was $1.9 million, for an average of $10,700 every time he made the switch, according to the indictment.

The total amount Humphries was convicted of laundering had not been determined as of this morning, Eurenius said.

Humphries wasn't accused of marijuana trafficking. He was accused of laundering money he knew was the proceeds of crimes.