Opinion ID: 74730
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Money-Laundering Charge

Text: On August 5, 1993, the ACOE sent PZ a check for $595,970, which included $345,970 that was duplicated from a prior payment and was accidentally paid to PZ a second time. At trial, Nolan’s administrative assistant, Sheila Carter, testified that she detected the duplicate payment and notified Nolan. Nolan told 4 her to deposit the entire amount into the PZ account, and that they would take care of it when the ACOE discovered the overpayment. Nolan’s computer assistant, Miguel Michelena, testified that he also approached Nolan about the overpayment. Nolan told Michelena that they would worry about it if the ACOE caught its mistake. Special Agent Edward Miller, of the Internal Revenue Service criminal investigation division, testified that in early August 1993, Nolan completed a wire transfer including the $345,970 duplicate payment. Nolan withdrew the money from the PZ account and deposited it into an account belonging to Renaissance Environmental Corporation (“Renaissance”). Renaissance was a “shell” corporation acquired by Nolan that did no work on the Three Lakes project. The jury convicted Nolan of money laundering as a result of the transfer of the duplicate payment from the PZ account to the Renaissance account. The jury convicted Nolan of five of the twenty-seven counts in the indictment, including the three of the major fraud counts, one count of theft of public money, and one count of money laundering. The district court sentenced Nolan to a total of sixty-three months’ imprisonment, and imposed a $10,000 restitution payment. Nolan timely appealed.