Accused Launderer Talked
of Foreign Account
By Todd Ruger, Herald
Tribune
TAMPA - The phony
Colombian drug dealer
asked Daniel Prewett a
friendly question to
start a discussion about
laundering $100,000 in
cash: "How was the Costa
Rica?"
"I love it," Prewett
told the man, who was
actually a confidential
informant recording the
conversation for federal
drug investigators.
Prewett's fondness for
the Central American
nation was about more
than just mountains,
beaches and real estate
investment
opportunities, according
to audio and video tapes
presented during
Prewett's trial this
week on money-laundering
charges.
A man Prewett described
as "like a son," Luciano
Angrilli, told the
confidential informant
about how banks in Costa
Rica "are not open to
the public."
"They can't check your
bank account," Angrilli
told the confidential
informant during a
videotaped meeting at
Prewett's Jackson Hewitt
tax franchise office on
Beneva Road in Sarasota.
"It's off limits for
America," said Angrilli,
who managed two Sarasota
nightclubs that Prewett
owned. "They can't come
in. They can't look at
how much you're making.
They can't charge you
taxes."
Prewett suggested that
the confidential
informant meet him in
Costa Rica to launder
the cash from drug
sales, because then the
transactions would not
be subject to United
States rules.
"I have a couple of
mountains I bought and
we're putting homes on
mountains," Prewett, 57,
told the informant. "I
have three condos there.
I also have an account
over there, a corporate
account."
Prewett pitched
investments in Costa
Rican real estate
through his investment
company, JH Investment
Services Inc., which he
ran out of the same
Beneva Road office where
he met the confidential
informant.
Investors who say
Prewett ripped them off
have long speculated
that he stashed money in
Costa Rica before
fleeing to Italy to
avoid money-laundering
and drug conspiracy
charges.
The trustee overseeing
efforts to collect more
than $36million in
claims against Prewett
in bankruptcy court
declined to comment on
whether there are
efforts to find assets
there.
Prewett had other
international
investments, including a
$145,000 loan to
Angrilli so that,
according to two
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agents
testifying this week, he
could have associates in
Italy stuff a car with
illegal drugs and ship
it to the U.S.
Authorities intercepted
the car in Manatee
County, and Prewett told
the agents that he lost
all but $20,000 in the
deal, they said.
Prewett has pleaded not
guilty to charges of
money laundering and
conspiracy to possess
cocaine with the intent
to distribute.
Prosecutors say he wired
$80,000 to a federal
investigative bank
account as part of a
cocaine buy in October
2006.
Angrilli pleaded guilty
to charges but fled
before his sentencing.
The government has not
found him.
Prewett's trial is
expected to end today in
Tampa, but will start
with him needing to
explain why he told the
judge that he was not
going to testify on his
own behalf "for the
safety of" his family. |
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