Opinion ID: 466130
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Money-Laundering and Cocaine Conspiracy

Text: 7 In September 1981 defendant Mouzin approached the president of a small Manhattan Beach bank and inquired whether he would accept large cash deposits (in excess of $10,000) without filing the required currency transaction reports (CTRs). At that time defendant Mouzin was employed as a clothing buyer in a Miami-based garment company known as Mr. C. According to defendant Mouzin, her employment at Mr. C.'s required her to open accounts for South American clients in order to exchange pesos; her clients allegedly did not want to file CTRs because having accounts in the United States was prohibited by their government. The president of the Manhattan Beach bank, Tom Moore, contacted the IRS and agreed to cooperate in an investigation of Mouzin. Moore then agreed with Mouzin to accept her cash deposits without filing the CTRs in return for a fee. 8 On November 19, 1981, Barbara Mouzin opened a new account, called the A.E.J. Export account, at the Manhattan Beach bank and deposited $20,000 in the account. The evidence indicates that this money formed the proceeds of a cocaine transaction. By January 1982, defendant Mouzin expressed concern to Mr. Moore that the large number of transactions, totaling more than $5 million, might attract attention in such a small bank. Mr. Moore agreed to facilitate finding a larger bank that would cooperate with the defendant. Mr. Moore then introduced Mouzin to an undercover agent, Ralph Jacoby, who claimed that he had connections with a larger bank through which he laundered money. Jacoby, using Pan Pacific Financial Management as an undercover front, agreed to accept cash from Mouzin for deposit in Security Pacific National Bank. He represented that his connections would ensure that CTRs were not filed. 9 Defendant Mouzin gave agent Jacoby millions of dollars beginning in February 1982 and ending in June of that year. Pursuant to Mouzin's instructions, sums were disbursed from that account by wire to other banks in Miami and Panama. On many occasions, codefendant Dorothy Hackett, an employee of Mr. C. and an associate of Barbara Mouzin, delivered cash to the Pan Pacific offices. In March 1982, agent Jacoby introduced Mouzin to two DEA undercover agents. These DEA agents, Morgan and Swanson, desired to purchase large quantities of cocaine. According to Mouzin, she first refused to facilitate such transactions but later consented under economic pressure from agent Jacoby to make up for a shortfall from a robbery in the basement of the Pan Pacific Building. At trial, codefendant Hackett, who had previously pled guilty and was awaiting sentence, testified that she picked up the cash for deposit in this account from various sources, including directly from codefendant Carvajal. 10 On May 27, 1982, defendant Mouzin introduced agents Morgan and Swanson to Alphonso Carvajal at her residence to discuss a large cocaine sale. Carvajal gave Morgan a small sample of cocaine. The agents wanted a larger sample and, as Carvajal was leaving in his car, Swanson requested one kilogram of cocaine. Carvajal told Swanson that he had left something in the house for them. Upon returning to Mouzin's house, the agents purchased approximately two kilograms of cocaine from Mouzin as a sample. 11 Defendant Mouzin contended at trial that she operated a money-laundering operation which incidentally had a few customers that may have been dealing in cocaine. She claims that her only connection with cocaine transactions, however, was the May 27 introduction of codefendant Carvajal to the agents. She admitted that she knew others, including codefendants Dorothy Hackett and Lois Widdicombe, who were working for a cocaine dealer not named as a defendant in this case.
12 Defendant Alphonso Carvajal was charged primarily with narcotics violations. In addition to the evidence of the May 27 meeting with Agents Morgan and Swanson at the Mouzin residence, the agents testified that they met Carvajal in Miami in June 1982 to purchase cocaine. To pay Carvajal for the May cocaine samples, the agents deposited $57,000 in the Pan Pacific front. At the June meeting, the agents purchased 20 kilograms of cocaine from Carvajal. Carvajal had the cocaine delivered in the trunk of a rental car to the agents who, in return, agreed to deposit $1,000,000 in a Miami account. Upon returning to Los Angeles, the agents displayed fictitious wire transfer records to demonstrate payment to Carvajal. Carvajal then stated that he was part of a large cocaine organization.