December 26, 2007
An Alpharetta man was sentenced to six years in prison and a $1.6 million fine Dec. 12 for his part in a money laundering scheme that funneled drug profits through two Atlanta jewelry stores.
Toros Seher, 39, of Alpharetta and Atlanta was immediately taken into custody upon sentencing. He was indicted and arrested July 26, 2006 after raids on his Chaplin's and Chaplin's Midtown jewelry stores, an Alpharetta home and an Atlanta condominium.
In late August the businesses were sentenced to five years probation and fines of $350,000. In addition, the court ordered forfeitures totaling approximately $6 million in inventory, all funds held in the companies' bank accounts, and $54,800 in monetary judgments.
"Businesses cannot turn a blind eye when drug dealers try to use them to launder their dirty money, said U.S. Attorney David Nahmias. "Businesses who try to conceal drug money within their legitimate revenues are gambling with the law and risk losing everything. Here, the defendant lost two stores, a home, more than six million dollars -- and his freedom. In the end, money laundering does not pay."
Seher laundered drug proceeds and undercover sting money beginning in 1997 and ending in 2006 at his various jewelry stores, said cooperating defendants and witnesses.
According to witnesses, from 1997 to as late as 2002, Seher assisted drug dealers in laundering their dirty money by concealing that money among funds generated by a business's legitimate sales. In many cases, he accepted cash from drug dealers at an unnamed location in amounts that exceeded $10,000 and were as much as $200,000 for a single transaction.
Seher continued these practices at Chaplin's and Chaplin's Midtown. Starting in April 2005, IRS undercover agents made three purchases in cash exceeding $10,000 from Seher for a wedding set, a Rolex watch and two diamond bracelets. Audio and video tapes show Seher advising the undercover agent to "use any name and address" when filling out the forms and making "choking gestures" to suggest the agents were saying too much regarding the source of the money, which he believed was illegal drug trafficking.
Seher also told the undercover agents to make payments of less than $10,000 to disguise cash transactions and avoid filling out required IRS forms. Evidence at trial showed that he did not report these cash transactions and knew that the jewelry sales were being used to launder money from drugs. The law prohibits businesses from knowingly accepting proceeds of crimes from people who want to hide those funds and requires such trades and businesses to report all cash transactions of more than $10,000.00 to the IRS using specific forms
- www.northfulton.com
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