Lawyer pleads guilty in money-laundering case, admits getting $390K from client drug-trafficker
A California lawyer who reportedly helped a client—who had previously been convicted of drug offenses—incorporate marijuana dispensaries may be following him to prison.
Described in court documents as “kingpin of a large, organized criminal enterprise awash in narcotics, firearms, and, most of all, money,” the client, John Melvin “Pops” Walker, was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison last year for drug trafficking and failing to report income from pot sales, the Orange County Register reports.
On Thursday, attorney Richard Brizendine, 59, pleaded guilty in federal court in Santa Ana to money laundering and structuring cash deposits in connection with nearly $390,000 that Walker passed on to him from drug sales, the article says.
Brizendine could get as much as 10 years when he is sentenced in May.
Related coverage:
Los Angeles Times (sub. req.): “Dispensing Profit”
