Wilson Man Sentenced To 102 Months For Structuring Financial Transactions

RALEIGH - United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that in federal court today, Chief United States District Judge James C. Dever III sentenced JAMES DINO WILLS, 45,of Wilson, North Carolina, to 102 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release.  Additionally, WILLS was ordered to forfeit $733,882.34.  WILLS also agreed to file amended federal income tax returns for the tax years 2008 through 2013 and to pay any taxes owed. 

WILLS pled guilty on May 7, 2014 to Structuring Financial Transactions to Evade the Filing of Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs). Structuring is the breaking up of a single cash transaction of more than $10,000.00 into two or more separate transactions for the purpose of evading the federal reporting requirement, i.e. CTR.  Federal law requires banks and other financial institutions to file CTRs with the U.S. Treasury Department for all cash transactions exceeding $10,000.

Thomas J. Holloman, III, Special Agent in Charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation stated, “Structuring is an illegal activity!  Regardless of whether the funds come from legal or illegal sources, structuring financial transactions to evade Bank Secrecy Act reporting requirements or to conceal legal cash generating activities as a way to evade paying taxes is a felony that IRS-CI will continue to investigate in adherence with the law.  The structuring crime in Mr. Wills’ situation is amplified because he has now been prosecuted for the same type of illegal activity twice!”

The investigation revealed that WILLS operated a home repair and roofing business in the Rocky Mount and Wilson, North Carolina areas from 2008 to 2013.  WILLS received payments for services and repairs primarily in the form of checks.  These checks were deposited into his business accounts at two financial institutions.  WILLS then structured cash withdrawals from these accounts in order to avoid the filing of CTRs. He most often accomplished this by withdrawing cash in amounts just under $10,000.00 and withholding cash from deposits in amounts just under $10,000.00.  From 2008 to 2013, WILLS structured $755,764.34 in cash transactions.  WILLS was prosecuted for the same offense in 1998.

The investigation of this case was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations. The prosecution of the case was handled by Assistant United States Attorney Thomas Murphy.