Suspended Kentucky Attorney Charged With Structuring Financial Transactions To Evade Reporting
– Alleged To Have Structured Nearly $300,000
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Attorney William O. Ayers, of Louisville, Kentucky has been charged by a federal grand jury meeting in Louisville with structuring and attempting to structure currency transactions at domestic financial institutions during a 12 month period involving more than $100,000 announced David J. Hale, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.
According to the single count indictment handed down today, between March 24, 2011 and April 27, 2011, Ayers knowingly and for the purpose of evading the reporting requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act, made 36 currency deposits totaling $294,400 on nine different days, in amounts less than $10,000, in five domestic financial institutions. (Financial institutions have a legal obligation to report transactions in excess of $10,000.) The structured funds were then withdrawn and deposited in to other accounts held by defendant Ayers. The indictment includes a notice of forfeiture including, but not limited to, the contents of a brokerage account with approximately $283,500 which was seized by the United States on March 15, 2012.
On January 28, 2010 Ayers was convicted by a Jefferson Circuit Court jury on five felony counts of failure to file Kentucky Individual Income Tax Returns. Judge Susan Schultz Gibson sentenced Ayers to a three year prison sentence, probated, with 90 days to serve in Louisville Metro Corrections, and a $5,000 fine to be paid. In March 2012, the Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed the conviction and granted Ayers a new trial. The Commonwealth of Kentucky is seeking review of this decision by the Kentucky Supreme Court. According to public records, Ayers’ license to practice law has been suspended by the Kentucky Supreme Court since January 29, 2010.
If convicted, Ayers faces no more than 10 years in prison, a $500,000 fine and three years of supervised release. The defendant is scheduled to appear for arraignment before Magistrate Judge James D. Moyer on July 24, 2012.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Amy Sullivan and was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division.
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The indictment of a person by a Grand Jury is an accusation
only and that person is presumed innocent until and unless
proven guilty.
