Turks & Caicos-based Attorney Pleads Guilty To Money Laundering

News Americas, WASHINGTON, D.C., Tues. July 15, 2014: A Canadian-born attorney with a law firm based in the Turks and Caicos is the latest person to plead guilty to conspiring to launder money in the Caribbean, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have announced.

Patrick Poulin, 41, who worked and resided in Canada as well as the Turks and Caicos, and whose clientele also included numerous U.S., copped the guilty plea  just weeks after the two other men accused of conspiring to conceal and disguise the nature, location, source, ownership and control of some $2 million in property believed to be the proceeds of bank fraud also pleaded guilty.

Joshua Vandyk, 34, a U.S. citizen, and Eric St-Cyr, 50, a Canadian citizen, Poulin’s two other alleged accomplices, pleaded guilty on June 12, and June 27th, respectively.

Vandyk, St-Cyr and Poulin were busted after assisting undercover law enforcement agents posing as U.S. clients in laundering purported criminal proceeds through an offshore structure designed to conceal the true identity of the proceeds’ owners.

Vandyk and St-Cyr admitted to investing the laundered funds on the clients’ behalf and represented that the funds would not be reported to the U.S. government.

According to court documents, Vandyk and St-Cyr lived in the Cayman Islands and worked for an investment firm based there.  St-Cyr was the founder and head of the investment firm, whose clientele included numerous U.S. citizens.

All three solicited U.S. citizens to use their services to hide assets from the U.S. government, including the IRS.

Vandyk and St-Cyr directed the undercover agents posing as U.S. clients to create an offshore corporation with the assistance of Poulin and others because they and the investment firm did not want to appear to deal with U.S. clients.

Vandyk, St-Cyr and Poulin used the offshore entity to move money into the Cayman Islands and used Poulin as a nominee intermediary for the transactions.

According to court documents, Poulin established an offshore corporation called Zero Exposure Inc. for the undercover agents posing as U.S. clients and served as a nominal board member in lieu of the clients.

Poulin transferred approximately $200,000 that Poulin, St-Cyr and Vandyk believed to be the proceeds of bank fraud from the offshore corporation to the Cayman Islands, where Vandyk and St-Cyr invested those funds outside of the United States in the name of the offshore corporation.

The investment firm represented that it would neither disclose the investments or any investment gains to the U.S. government, nor would it provide monthly statements or other investment statements to the clients.  Clients were able to monitor their investments online through the use of anonymous, numeric passcodes.  Upon request from the U.S. client, Vandyk and St-Cyr liquidated investments and transfer money, through Poulin, back to the United States.  According to Vandyk and St-Cyr, the investment firm would charge clients higher fees to launder criminal proceeds than to assist them in tax evasion.

The three defendants were indicted by a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on March 6th, and the indictment was unsealed on March 12th after the defendants were arrested in Miami. They face sentencing in September.

“This investigation highlights the Justice Department’s commitment to worldwide enforcement of federal laws designed to ensure that U.S. taxpayers fully disclose and report all foreign income and assets,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Ronald A. Cimino of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.  “The Tax Division is committed to using every tool available to hold these wrongdoers accountable.”

“Individuals who assist others in laundering criminal proceeds will be held accountable for their own criminal actions,” added IRS-Criminal Investigation Chief Richard Weber.  “The defendants in this investigation had a blatant disrespect for the laws and laundered purported criminal proceeds through offshore structures to conceal the identity of the proceeds’ owners. IRS Criminal Investigation has ramped up its presence in the international arena and will aggressively pursue those who commit financial crimes.”