Former State Lawmaker Sentenced

A former State Representative from Detroit was sentenced yesterday to a year in prison after having been found guilty of structuring financial transactions, announced U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade. 

McQuade was joined in the announcement by Acting Special Agent in Charge Jarod Koopman, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation.

Kenneth Daniels, 56, was convicted earlier this year of structuring financial transactions following a jury trial with co-defendants Carlos Powell, Eric Powell and Earnest Proge before U.S. District Judge Stephen J. Murphy, III in U.S. District Court in May 2014.

Evidence presented at trial showed that Daniels, who had served as the Vice Chairman of the Insurance and Financial Services Committee while a member of Michigan’s State Legislature, supported Powell’s large-scale drug operation by making multiple financial transactions to conceal Powell’s illegal activities from law enforcement.  Daniels received $19,000 from Carlos Powell, broke those funds into two smaller amounts, and went to two separate banks to obtain cashier checks in an attempt to evade legal requirements to report transactions exceeding $10,000.  Daniels returned the checks to Powell, who used the funds to purchase a Mercedes.  The jury found that Daniels structured these financial transactions for Powell so that Powell’s finances would not be scrutinized.

The investigation of the Carlos Powell drug trafficking organization was a  multi-year investigation and included agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency, Internal Revenue System, Immigration and Customs, Homeland Security and local officers in Northville, Plymouth, Warren, Redford, Detroit, Macomb County and the Michigan State Police.