NEW ENGLAND NEWS
April 07, 2011
Contact: SA Tony Pettigrew
New England Division
617-557-2138
Federal Grand Jury Indicts Boston
Attorney on Money Laundering Charges
BOSTON, MA.  - A federal grand jury today indicted a Boston attorney, charging him with money laundering.
Steven W. Derr, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Boston Field Division; United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; and William Offord, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation - Boston Field Office announced today that 
ROBERT A. GEORGE , 56, of Westwood, was charged in a seven count indictment with conspiring to launder money, money laundering, and structuring transactions to evade reporting requirements.
The indictment alleges that from early 2009 to 2011, 
GEORGE  and a co-conspirator conspired to conceal the illicit source of more than $225,000 in drug proceeds. 
GEORGE  allegedly did this by introducing an individual who was cooperating with the government to 
GEORGE's  co-conspirator, who converted purported drug money into checks made payable to a fictitious undercover company. According to the indictment, the cooperating witness (CW) represented that he had large amounts of cash from drug trafficking to both 
GEORGE  and his co-conspirator and, on two separate occasions, the co-conspirator took cash in exchange for a check he made payable to a fictitious undercover company. It is alleged that for this service, the CW was charged a substantial fee.
On another occasion, it is alleged that after 
GEORGE  offered a fee to a CW for referring 
GEORGE  clients, 
GEORGE  took $25,000 in cash from an undercover agent posing as a drug dealer client, and made two separate deposits of that cash, at two different branches of his bank, in amounts under $10,000, in order to avoid a reporting requirement. 
GEORGE  allegedly thereafter paid the CW a referral fee in the form of a check made payable to a fictitious undercover company. According to the indictment, 
GEORGE  wrote in the memo line of the check that it was for "office disposal." It is alleged that in all of these transactions, 
GEORGE  helped conceal the fact that the cash was what he understood to be proceeds of illegal drug trafficking.
If convicted on each of the money laundering charges, 
GEORGE  faces up to 20 years imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release and a $500,000 fine. If convicted of the structuring count, 
GEORGE  faces up to five years imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.