Attorney convicted of laundering proceeds from marijuana operation
A Minnesota attorney has been federally convicted for using his law firm to help launder money from a brother-in-law’s marijuana sales operation.
Robert D. Boedigheimer, 51, was found guilty Tuesday by a Minneapolis jury of money laundering and making false statements to an Internal Revenue Service agent, according to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. KTTC and the Star Tribune also have stories.
Federal prosecutors said Boedigheimer’s brother-in-law, Brandon Lusk, would give Boedigheimer proceeds of his marijuana sales as loans that would be repeatedly refinanced, giving cash back to Boedigheimer. Boedigheimer also created a phony consulting position for Lusk, issuing Lusk payroll checks after he gave marijuana sales proceeds to Boedigheimer.
“This case needed to be prosecuted because as a practicing lawyer, the defendant abused the trust that society places on the practice of law by laundering drug money through his law firm and obstructing a federal investigation,” assistant U.S. attorney Steven Schleicher said.
Lusk pleaded guilty to money-laundering conspiracy in 2011, the Star Tribune reports. Like Boedigheimer, he is scheduled to be sentenced at a later date.
The convicted attorney was formerly a partner at McCloud & Boedigheimer, the Business Journal article notes. Another former partner, Samuel Alfred McCloud, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for tax evasion in 2011 in an apparently unrelated case for failing to report income of at least $595,000 from two law firms. Instead of depositing money into law firm accounts, authorities said, McCloud had clients write checks directly to him.
The Associated Press and a U.S. Department of Justice press release provide further details about McCloud’s case.
