Indictment Against a South Carolina Man on Interstate Travel in aid of Racketeering and Wire-Fraud Conspiracy Charges
United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian announced today the first superseding indictment against a South Carolina man on interstate travel in aid of racketeering and wire-fraud conspiracy charges.
WILLIAM DAVID HUMPHRIES, 64, of Lake City, South Carolina, was charged by a federal grand jury in Syracuse, New York, on April 13, 2011, in a two count First Superseding Indictment. Count 1 of the First Superseding Indictment charges HUMPHRIES with interstate travel in aid of racketeering. Count 2 of the First Superseding Indictment charges HUMPHRIES with a wire-fraud conspiracy to defraud Canada of Tax Revenue.
Specifically, Count 1 of the First Superseding Indictment alleges that between February 15 and February 18, 2006, defendant WILLIAM DAVID HUMPHRIES traveled between South Carolina and the Northern District of New York with the intent to distribute proceeds, in the approximate amount of $88,528, of one or more unlawful activities, to wit: 1) a wire-fraud conspiracy to defraud Canada of tax revenue by the untaxed sales of cigarettes imported from the United States, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1343 and 1349; and 2) a conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, namely, marijuana, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841 and 846, and to promote, manage, establish, and carry on, and to facilitate the promotion, management, establishment, and carrying on of one or more of said unlawful activities, and thereafter did perform and attempt to perform one or more acts to distribute the proceeds of one or more of said unlawful activities, and to promote, manage, establish, and carry on, and to facilitate the promotion, management, establishment, and carrying on of one or more of said unlawful activities, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1952(a)(1) and (a)(3).
Count 2 of the First Superseding Indictment alleges that beginning sometime in or about the summer of 2005, and continuing thereafter until in or around approximately May of 2006, in the Northern District of New York, the District of South Carolina, and elsewhere, WILLIAM DAVID HUMPHRIES did knowingly and intentionally combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with Individual A, Individual B, and others known and unknown to the grand jury to defraud Canada of tax revenue, and, for the purpose of executing said scheme and artifice to defraud, knowingly caused to be transmitted in interstate commerce, by means of wire communication, certain signs, signals, and sounds by interstate telephone calls and facsimile transmissions, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1343 and 1349.
The First Superseding Indictment also has a forfeiture allegation against WILLIAM DAVID HUMPHRIES for a money judgment in the amount of $7,000,000.
The defendant is scheduled for an initial appearance on these charges in federal court in Syracuse on October 20, 2011 before the Hon. David E. Peebles.
The HUMPHRIES case has been investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl G. Eurenius, who can be reached at 448-0672.
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