Havre Pawn Shop Owner Pleads Guilty to Not Reporting Large Transactions

GREAT FALLS - The United States Attorney’s Office announced that SHAD JAMES HUSTON, 40, of Havre, Montana, pleaded guilty during a federal court hearing in Great Falls, Montana, on September 17, 2015, before U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris to ignoring federal reporting requirements when more than $10,000 in currency was transacted in a single transaction. Huston faces a potential penalty of five years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

Huston operated various businesses, including Leon’s Pawn & Rental, Inc., which did business as Leon’s Buy and Sell in Havre, Montana, and Leon’s Finance, Inc., which did business as Big Sky Pawn in Great Falls, Montana.  Because pawn shops and check-cashing businesses conduct a large volume of cash transactions, they must register as Money Service Businesses with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), of the U.S. Department of Treasury.  FinCEN’s mission is to combat criminal enterprises and money laundering by identifying people and organizations who engage in large cash transactions; those transactions often relate to criminal activity which can be discovered through the collection, analysis, and dissemination of financial intelligence.  

In order for FinCEN to track money laundering and other fraud, Huston, as the owner and operator of a money service business, was required to file Currency Transaction Reports (“CTRs”) when cashing checks for customers in excess of $10,000.  According to the indictment, Huston cashed checks in excess of $10,000 for Hailey Belcourt, who was previously indicted and convicted for fraud.  He also cashed checks in excess of $10,000 for members of the Houle family.  Former Tribal Chairman John Chance Houle was sentenced to over five years in federal prison last year for his role in the wide-spread corruption uncovered by the Guardians Project at the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation.  The indictment identified 19 checks that Huston cashed that should have been reported to the Treasury Department, but were not.

Judge Morris set sentencing for December 16, 2015, at 1:30 p.m.  Four more indictments are pending against Huston; those indictments charge16 other felony crimes including bribery, wire fraud, embezzlement, and false claims fraud.  The first trial against Huston is set to begin on October 19, 2015, at 8:30 a.m.

Huston’s conviction for failing to file CTRs is the latest in a series of prosecutions and convictions relating to public corruption, fraud, and theft in federal grants, contracts, and programs brought by the investigators and prosecutors of the U.S. Attorney’s Guardians Project, an anti-corruption strike force created in 2011. The Huston case relating to his failure to file CTRs was investigated by the Criminal Investigations Division of the Internal Revenue Service.