Opinion ID: 588163
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Swindall's Grand Jury Appearance and Resulting Indictment

Text: 26 In January 1988, the government indicted and arrested LeChasney for money-laundering. On January 28, after learning of LeChasney's arrest, Swindall contacted the U.S. Attorney's Office in Atlanta and asked to speak with someone regarding his financial dealings with LeChasney. Two IRS agents visited Swindall at his home that night and took a statement. On February 2, 1988, Swindall appeared before a federal grand jury investigating money-laundering activities. The government informed Swindall that he was a subject, not a target, of the investigation. According to the government, Swindall perjured himself before the grand jury to conceal the extent of his involvement in discussions about illegal money-laundering transactions. 27 The grand jury returned a ten-count perjury indictment against Swindall on October 17, 1988. In brief, the indictment charged that Swindall made the following false statements that were material to the grand-jury investigation: he stated that during negotiations with the undercover agent, he had never satisfied himself as to the criminality of the proposed transactions, and that he did not recall being told that LeChasney's conversion of the money would violate federal currency reporting requirements (Count One); he stated that he did not recall discussions about being insulated by LeChasney from the source of the undercover agent's money (Count Two); he stated that he walked away from the deal on September 13, 1987, after the Greenbriar meeting, when in fact he continued negotiating until the end of September (Count Three); he stated that he did not recall being told by the undercover agent that the source of the cash was drug-sale proceeds (Count Five); he stated that every time I talked with Mike [Agent Mullaney], I was insisting that the money be delivered without my being present (Count Six); he stated that the $150,000 check he received from LeChasney had nothing to do with the larger, $850,000 transaction with the undercover agent (Count Seven); he stated that he had given the $150,000 check to his secretary and instructed her not to deposit it, when in fact he had delivered the check to the builder of his home (Count Eight); he stated that he did not recall conversations about avoiding filing bank forms (Count Nine); and finally, he stated that he did not recall being informed by the undercover agent that the agent's investors were engaging in the transaction to wash or launder cash (Count Ten). 28 A first trial--scheduled at Swindall's request for October 1988 to give him a chance to retain his seat in the House by winning acquittal before Election Day--was aborted stemming from charges that Swindall had mailed to potential jurors campaign literature claiming that he had passed a lie detector test concerning the perjury charges. Swindall lost his campaign for reelection and went to trial in May 1989. During the trial, the district court dismissed Count Four of the indictment. A jury found Swindall guilty on all the remaining counts. Swindall filed a timely notice of appeal. 29