Extortion and Title 31

SAR Leads to Former Deputy Sheriff Sentenced for Extortion and Title 31 Violations

A former California deputy sheriff pled guilty to extortion and Title 31 charges. He was sentenced to serve 60 months in prison followed by 5 years probation, and ordered to pay $300,000 in restitution to one of the victims. His wife received three years probation for related charges. The sentencings were the culmination of a joint investigation by Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) and a local police department. The subject, a martial arts expert, claimed that he was a former Green Beret and that he had Mafia connections. He used threats of violence and blackmail to extort as much as $1.3 million from various individuals. On one occasion, the subject used a Samurai sword and threatened to cut off a victim's fingers if he did not sign a promissory note payable to an individual described by the subject as a .Godfather type..

IRS-CI became aware of the illegal activity following the filing of a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) by a local bank. The bank filed the SAR based on several factors including:

• the detection of a pattern of withdrawals inconsistent with the subject's normal business activity;
• conversations between the subject, and/or his wife with various bank tellers about large transactions that were inconsistent; and
• apparent attempts by the subject to structure deposits to avoid reporting requirements.
• It was later discovered that the subject had opened the account using his mother-in- law's Social Security Number, and that he used several different identities. (Source: IRS/Criminal Investigation)

Excerpted from SAR Activity Review Issue 3, page 29