Opinion ID: 3012046
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Milan’s Crimes in his Private Capacity

Text: The evidence at the trial demonstrated the following.1 In _________________________________________________________________ 1. We point out that Milan does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction. 3 October 1992, Milan formed the Atlas Contracting Company (Atlas) with his friend, Gholam H. Darakhshan, to undertake commercial and residential construction projects in the Camden area. On August 11, 1994, Atlas obtained a contract for the construction of 13 homes at Arthur’s Court in Camden. Inasmuch as the contract required Atlas to secure a performance and payment bond, it entered into a surety arrangement with Amwest Surety Insurance Company in which Amwest agreed to issue bonds for each phase of construction. Amwest, however, required Atlas to post collateral as a condition for Amwest issuing the bonds. To satisfy this obligation to post security, Milan and Darakhshan borrowed $65,000 in cash from Jose Rivera, the owner of an automotive parts store which functioned in part as a front to launder the profits of local drug dealers. Realizing that Rivera had obtained the loan money from nefarious activities, Milan and Darakhshan concocted a scheme to utilize the narcotics-related proceeds without arousing the suspicions of the Internal Revenue Service to which, by law, domestic currency transaction reports for cash deposits of $10,000 or more must be sent. Specifically, they divided the cash into amounts of less than $10,000 which they distributed to friends and relatives who, in turn, transferred the money to Atlas in the form of bank checks or personal checks. Milan and Darakhshan also deposited some of the cash directly into an Atlas account. They then purchased a $60,900 certificate of deposit from a bank in Camden and assigned it to Amwest as collateral security. Subsequently, over the course of a few months, Milan and Darakhshan issued a series of checks in amounts of less than $10,000 made out from Atlas to themselves or to various friends and family members as ostensible loan repayments.2 Milan and Darakhshan eventually cashed the checks and repaid Rivera the $65,000 together with $10,000 in interest. In addition to money laundering, Milan and Darakhshan used Atlas to perpetrate insurance fraud. In June 1994 and _________________________________________________________________ 2. Milan and Darakhshan wrote the words loan repayments on the memo lines of some checks. 4 February 1995, Atlas entered into an agreement with AT&T Capital Leasing Corporation for the lease of two computers, two printers, and one copy machine. Atlas then secured commercial property insurance from Selective Insurance Company to protect against loss or damage to the machines. On December 31, 1995, Milan and Darakhshan staged a sham burglary of the Atlas office, removing property and breaking a window. They later filed a false stolen property report with the Camden police and a lost property worksheet with the insurance company. Atlas received $4,743.50 from Selective in satisfaction of the false claim. Milan kept one of the computers for personal use until August 1997, when he sold it to a former student intern.