U.S. Department
of Justice
United States Attorney Richard B. Roper
|
|||||
|
|||||
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: KATHY COLVIN |
||||
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2007 WWW.USDOJ.GOV/USAO/TXN |
PHONE: (214)659-8600
|
||||
LUBBOCK, TEXAS, BUSINESSMAN SENTENCED TO MORE Laughlin, 60, pled guilty in May to an Information charging one count of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity (money laundering). He had worked as the General Manager at Wool Growers Central Storage Co., Inc., in Ozona, Texas, since 1991. Wool Growers operated warehouses that stored mohair and wool until it could be sold. It also acted as an agent and fiduciary for mohair and wool producers. If a producer agreed to sell at an offered price, then Wool Growers collected the sales price, deducted storage and commission costs, and then paid the balance to the producer whose mohair or wool had been sold. Wool Growers, which had mohair and wool storage warehouses in Ozona and Sanderson, Texas, also had a retail business that sold farm and ranch supplies Instead of deducting storage and commissions from these sales and paying over the balance to the owner/producer of the mohair or wool that was sold, Laughlin would either keep the money himself, or after payment was received by wire transfer or check, transfer the sales proceeds from the mohair/wools sales bank account to the Wool Growers retail business bank account. Then once 1the money from the fraudulent sales had been transferred and deposited into the Wool Growers retail business bank account, those monies would be used for regular business expenses of the Wool Growers retail business or were fraudulently taken by Laughlin, often in the form of unauthorized additional salary checks and cash. |