FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CONTACT: Lauren Horwood
March 8, 2012	PHONE: (916) 554-2706
www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae	usacae.edcapress@usdoj.gov
Docket #: 2:12-CR-00025 MCE

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that Stancil Enterprises, Inc., a corporation selling airplanes from a location in Placerville, California, was sentenced today to forfeit approximately $428,000 and to pay $500,000 in criminal fines for conspiring to aid and abet the structuring of financial transactions. 

On February 16, 2012, Stancil Enterprises, Inc. pleaded guilty to a one count information charging Stancil Enterprises, its owner and president, Joseph Stancil, and a salesman at the company, Daniel Mathis.  Joseph Stancil spoke on behalf of Stancil Enterprises at the sentencing. 

According to the plea agreement, in 2008 and 2009, Stancil Enterprises sold multiple planes in exchange for cash structured into Stancil Enterprises bank accounts.  Stancil Enterprises and its agents believed the purchasers to be Mexican and the deposited cash to be from illegal narcotics trafficking.  The company and its agents knew that the buyers were structuring cash into its account in increments of less than $10,000 in order to avoid reporting requirements.  The company and its agents also knew that the bank could not have any knowledge of the relationship of the transactions to a specific buyer or plane, and could not then determine whether or not to report the transaction and, if it did, could not identify the individuals making the deposits or purchasing the planes.  Knowing this, Stancil Enterprises made the sales by assisting the structuring, permitting the use of its accounts and refraining from filing its own required reports on cash over $10,000 received in relation to each sale.

In November 2009, an undercover agent with the Internal Revenue Service made contact with Joseph Stancil and advised Stancil that he wished to purchase a plane for his son with cash and asked for advice on how to accomplish that without having any reports filed on the cash transaction.  Stancil’s response indicated that he understood that the fictional son was engaged in drug trafficking activity in Mexico, specifically marijuana.  Stancil proceeded to advise the agent how “the Mexicans” did it, depositing cash in increments into Stancil Enterprises accounts.  Stancil and the undercover agent proceeded into the office of Daniel Matjos, who advised the agent about Stancil Enterprises’s Form 8300 reporting requirement for such cash transactions.  When Stancil asked how they got away with not reporting “the Mexicans,” Mathis advised that no one had ever “hassled” Stancil Enterprises about the issue.

From September 2008 and through August 2009, Stancil Enterprises received $428,589.30 in structured funds in relation to six plane sales, each with a separate buyer.  The Court ordered the company to forfeit those funds as part of its sentence.

In sentencing Stancil Enterprises, Inc., to the maximum available punishment, Judge Morrison C. England, Jr. noted that Stancil had an “extremely complex, large scale operation” that resulted in significant financial gains to the company through deposits from apparent drug dealers. 

This case is the product of an extensive investigation by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation and a Financial Crimes Task Force including the Sacramento Police Department and Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, and Assistant United States Attorney Jean M. Hobler, who is prosecuting the case. 

United States Attorney Benjamin Wagner said that “Stancil Enterprises looked the other way to make a buck, letting criminal elements avoid reporting requirements designed to identify criminals like drug traffickers.  Doing business with drug dealers, from Mexico or anywhere else, enables these criminals to continue all kinds of violent criminal activity.  We will not ignore what some like to call ‘technical’ financial reporting crimes – to do so would give drug traffickers and other criminals free rein in our financial systems.  We urge all businesses to review their own cash accounting practices and ensure that any suspicious transactions are reported according to the law.”

“The defendants knew that the buyers of the planes structured the cash deposits in order to avoid the reporting requirements,” said Marcus Williams, IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge.  “Those who turn a blind eye to this kind of activity run the risk of having their assets seized.  We hit them where it hurts - in their wallets.”

The charges in the information as to Joseph Stancil and Daniel Mathis are only allegations and they are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

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