Opinion ID: 2967751
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Concealment Money Laundering

Text: The evidence also established that the Industrial Check Transactions constituted concealment money laundering, pursuant to § 1956(a)(1)(B)(i). On this point, the Boldens maintain that, while the Industrial Check Transactions were designed to avoid the requirements of the Medicaid regulations, they were not designed to conceal the fact that Emerald Health had obtained prospective payments from Medicaid. On this basis, they assert that their convictions for concealment money laundering are invalid. Viewed in the proper light, however, the Industrial Check Transactions concealed the fact that the payments Medicaid made to Emerald Health were being used in the Related Party Transactions. As related above, supra Part II.B.2, the Boldens and Nelson created Industrial to 22 UNITED STATES v. BOLDEN hide the fact that Emerald Health was ordering supplies from Carolina Supply, a related party. The Industrial Check Transactions concealed this arrangement and enabled Medicaid to be billed at inflated prices for the supplies ordered from Carolina Supply. Those transactions also concealed the fact that the money flowing into Carolina Supply, and ultimately to the Boldens, was derived from Medicaid funds. The creation and use of sham businesses is highly relevant to the proof of concealment money laundering. The Fifth Circuit, in United States v. Willey, 57 F.3d 1374, 1385 (5th Cir. 1995), observed that the use of a third party, for example, a business entity or a relative, to purchase goods on one’s behalf or from which one will benefit usually constitutes sufficient proof of a design to conceal. And in United States v. Ladum, 141 F.3d 1328, 1333 (9th Cir. 1998), the Ninth Circuit, in an analogous situation, concluded that a defendant who concealed his ownership in a business from a bankruptcy trustee, through the use of nominees who held themselves out as owners of the stores, had committed concealment money laundering. The court reasoned that the use of nominees prevented the bankruptcy trustee from knowing that [the defendant] was the legitimate owner of the stores. Id. at 1340. Likewise, the Boldens’ use of Industrial concealed the fact that Emerald Health was billing Medicaid (at inflated prices) for the Related Party Transactions. In sum, the evidence sufficiently proves the allegations of concealment money laundering.