Money Laundering—Drug Profits

Desperate circumstances can sometimes lead to strange bedfellows. For example, forty-eight Hurricane Katrina evacuees who had been brought from Slidell, Louisiana to Marion, Indiana, discovered late last week that the man who transported them and offered them rent-free apartments for six months has a federal trial beginning on October 31 for laundering drug money.^[1]

Edwin Blinn, Jr., who owns two used car lots in Indiana, has said that the evacuees’ living situations will not change during the pendency of the trial, even though Assistant US Attorney Tim Morrison has said that the government could conceivably try to seize the apartments if it is shown that he obtained the property with drug proceeds.^[2] However, the indictment only lists two vehicles as property it might try to seize.^[3]

The October 31 trial will be Mr. Blinn’s second after the initial trial was stopped when the government alleged that a colleague of Mr. Blinn offered a bribe to a government witness, prompting Mr. Blinn’s attorney to withdraw from the case.^[4]

This is not the first time Mr. Blinn has tried to help communities affected by hurricanes; in 1992, he transported a 20-man construction crew from Indiana to Miami to assist in the clean-up after Hurricane Andrew.^[5]

Money Laundering is a serious federal crime, and we have discussed it previously here.

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[1] Ken Kusmer, Hurricane Humanitarian Faces Money-Laundering Trial Next Month, Associated Press, Sept. 9, 2005, available here.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id. See also Kristin Harty, Local Attorney May Face Prosecution, Marion Chronicle-Tribune, May 3, 2005, available here.
[5] Kusmer.