Thomas Forehand liquidated his remaining investments and borrowed $25,000 from his parents to finance the $120,000 “loan” to John. True to his word, John delivered a large bundle of $100 bills held together with rubber bands as collateral for the loan. Fore nine months, John made the monthly payments on the first day of each month. But, in the spring of 2002, two FBI agents arrived at Forehand’s firm to tell him that Jones would not be making any further payments on the loan since he had been arrested for selling a variety of illegal drugs including marijuana and methamphetamines. The agent then informed Forehand that he was being charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and aiding and abetting money laundering. Forehand was then handcuffed, read his Miranda rights, and taken to the local county courthouse to be arraigned.
The principal witness against Forehand during his criminal trial was John Jones. With the coaxing of federal prosecutors, Jones recounted the series of meetings between himself and Forehand that had eventually led to the loan agreement between the two men. Under cross-examination by Forehand’s legal counsel, Jones testified that he had never told Forehand the actual source of his cash “inheritance.” When given the opportunity to testify on his own behalf, Forehand insisted repeatedly that he did not know or suspect that Jones was attempting to launder money from an illicit drug operation but did admit that he had failed to report the receipt of more than $10,000 in cash to the RIS as required by a federal statute. Forehand’s denials had little impact on the jury. He was sentenced to six years in federal prison, fined $19,000, and was required to forfeit $70,000 of cash he had received from Jones that had been confiscated by law enforcement authorities.