A cautionary tale for Georgia Republicans

Via the tipline, I am reminded of something about Pat Swindall’s 1988 run-in with the law that should have served as a cautionary tale to former Gwinnett County Commissioner Shirley Fanning-Lasseter: when someone who has offered you money casually mentions that it’s proceeds from drug-money laundering, exit immediately without the sack of cash, and call the FBI to report the incident.

A refresher: Pat Swindall was a DeKalb County lawyer who was elected to Congress as a Republican in 1984, the year of Reagan’s sweeping reelection. In 1987, Swindall was indicted in federal court of perjury for allegedly lying to a grand jury about borrowing $850,000 to finance a $1 million dollar house.

The jury heard secretly taped conversations with the undercover agent, Mike Mullaney, in which Swindall was told that the $850,000 “certainly” included drug money and that he would be part of an operation to “wash” cash. Swindall proposed that a mortgage company be set up by LeChasney as a “buffer” to allow him to “borrow” the agent’s money.

In their last conversation after Swindall had received a $150,000 advance, he told Mullaney, “If Charles wants to launder y’all’s money, fine. But I can’t do that. . . . I can borrow the money from Charles.”

During the jury trial, Swindall was seeking reelection; campaign mailings by Swindall that mentioned the court case led to the jury being dismissed. Before a second jury returned a guilty verdict on nine counts of perury, Swindall lost his 1988 reelection to Democrat Ben Jones, who eventually gave the seat up to John Linder in 1992.

At one point under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, Swindall admitted error in negotiating with supposed drug kingpins for a loan, but said he didn’t think he violated Congressional ethics standards.

When I read the account of Fanning-Lasseter’s guilty plea, I wondered about the talk about the bribe money being from laundered drug money.

An undercover FBI agent posing as a businessman gave the payoffs to Lasseter in cash. He also told the commissioner he laundered illegal drug proceeds and was using that money to buy the Boggs Road property, Gilfillan said.

and from the AJC story:

In August, Lasseter received the final $26,000 payoff from the undercover agent at an Atlanta hotel. During that meeting Lasseter and Fanning each counted the dollars, “roll by roll,” Gilfillan said.

Before the undercover agent left, he told Lasseter and Fanning that he was laundering money for drug traffickers and said some of that money was being used to pay for the Boggs Road project, Gilfillan said.

As it turns out, the feds were attempting to lure the Commissioner’s son into drug-related activity:

the undercover agent had previously asked Fanning whether he was willing to become involved in illegal money laundering. According to the complaint, Fanning was all in.

“I’m totally on board,” he said. “I don’t mind doing any of this and I’ve definitely done things under the table before my whole life. I mean, I got no problems doing stuff like this. That’s how we all get by,” the complaint said.

In September, the complaint said, Fanning and Cain flew to the New York area to retrieve what they thought would be a multiple-kilogram shipment of cocaine. They spent the night and flew back with “four kilograms of purported cocaine,” the complaint said.

Fanning and Cain each took possession of two kilograms of the substance so they could give it to a prospective buyer, but were apprehended before making the deliveries, Gilfillan said.

Of course, the other reason to start talking about the money being proceeds from drug-related money laundering is that it makes for a more compelling story in the press and before a jury and it also brings in additional sections of the federal criminal code and the internal revenue code.

And now, it serves to tip a wary politician that the friendly loan or bribe being offered is probably from the hand of a federal agent.

Make of it what you will, and govern yourselves accordingly.