Lawyer helped launder drug profits, ex-client testifies
Ordinarily, Bruce Yazdzik spends his days in a federal prison in New Jersey, where he is serving a 10-year sentence for a drug conviction.
But on Tuesday he was in a federal court in New Haven, Connecticut, where Yazdzik testified that his former lawyer, Ralph Crozier, helped him launder profits from drug sales.
In 2011, Yazdzik claimed, the attorney suggested that he could legitimize his cash by buying used cars at auction and then quickly reselling them. When the car-flipping couldn’t keep up with his profits, Yazdzik said, he gave Crozier $30,000 at a meeting in Seymour, Connecticut, where the attorney practiced, reports the Connecticut Law Tribune.
The lawyer said he would put $9,000 in a bank account, and hold the rest in a safety deposit box as he gradually withdrew funds, Yazdzik testified.
At one point, Yazdzik says, he put $30,000 into a solar energy company operated by Crozier’s law partner, the Associated Press reports.
During cross-examination, Crozier’s counsel, Michael Hillis, pointed to Yazdzik’s use of hallucinogens, asked him about dates of claimed meetings with Crozier (the witness couldn’t remember) and suggested Yazdzik was simply trying to get his sentence in the drug case reduced, the Law Tribune recounts.
Hillis also said the feds only indicted Crozier after the attorney told them he couldn’t help them pursue a public corruption case in Waterbury.
Charged with conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and attempting to launder monetary instruments, Crozier could get as much as 40 years and a $2 million fine if convicted on all counts.
Related articles:
Connecticut Post: “How DEA busted accused lawyer”
Oxford Patch: “Indictment: Infamous Attorney on Wrong Side of the Law”
Valley Independent Sentinel: “Federal Judge To Accused Lawyer: Don’t Smoke Weed”
