Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 27, 1991 TAG: 9102270452
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Thomas Jefferson Rogers Jr. said he did not know he was doing anything illegal when he made a series of 18 transactions totaling $149,353 at a Sovran Bank branch in Roanoke two years ago.
From July 11-28, 1988, Rogers purchased 18 cashier's checks - all for just less than $10,000. Under the Bank Secrecy Act, financial institutions must file a report for transactions involving $10,000 or more in cash.
Rogers, 48, used the $149,353 to buy a home in Botetourt County on which the government now has a lien.
A jury in U.S. District Court in Roanoke took 25 minutes to convict Rogers of structuring the transactions to avoid the reports, a crime called "smurfing."
"I thought if my name came up in front of the IRS, it would send up a red flag and they'd start checking around," Rogers testified. "I'd been through it with the IRS, and I didn't want to get into it again in any way, shape or form."
Rogers was referring to his legal tangle with the IRS from 1981 to 1985, which resulted in his paying $72,000.
Rogers was convicted of bookmaking in 1975 and of operating an illegal sports betting operation in 1981. The latest charges were not linked to any of Rogers' past gambling activities.
Rogers testified that neither he nor the attorney who handled the closing on his house were aware that the transactions were illegal. His attorney contacted him last May about the unlawful nature of the transactions, Rogers said.
He faces a maximum $500,000 fine and 10 years in prison.
by CNB