Pubdate: Fri, 04 May 2007
Source: Union Leader (Manchester, NH)
Copyright: 2007 The Union Leader Corp.
Contact:  http://www.theunionleader.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/761
Note: Out-of-state e-mail letters are seldom published.
Author: John Distaso
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

TRACK MONEY SEIZED

The federal government has seized more than $3 million in proceeds of 
the 2005 sale of the former Lakes Region Greyhound Park from its 
former owners, citing a drug money-laundering operation that was run 
at the track in 2003 and 2004. Moving under the broad powers of a 
federal drug money forfeiture statute, the Justice Department has 
essentially frozen $3.3 million paid for the track by Marlin 
Torguson, who re-opened the facility as The Lodge at Belmont and is 
not involved in the case. The money was escrowed and has yet to be 
paid to various members of the Hart family and Vincent DiCesare of 
Massachusetts.

The government seized the funds last September, just days after 
lawyers for the long-feuding Hart family members agreed on how the 
proceeds should be split. The money under seizure had been placed in 
an interest-bearing Merrill Lynch account during state court 
proceedings and negotiations involving the Hart family, according to 
Ronald Cook, an attorney for Hart Parimutuel, the company owned by 
former Lakes Region general partner Allan Hart. Cook said the money 
remains in that account today and has never been disbursed to the 
owners. In a civil case now pending at U.S. District Court, the 
Justice Department seeks a ruling by a judge or jury that the money 
should be forfeited to the government. Attorney Cook and court papers 
filed by lawyers for other former owners say the proceeds of the sale 
should not be forfeited because that money is unrelated to the money 
that was being laundered through the track by former Belmont resident 
Randy Noe.

Noe has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to 
charges he conspired to sell oxycodone and launder money. "The funds 
from the sale have nothing to do with Randy Noe's money," said Cook 
said in an interview yesterday. "It's punishment. It's not like 
they're claiming that it's dirty money because it isn't."

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Rob Rabuck said federal law allows for 
seizure and forfeiture of "any and all property involved in the money 
laundering, that would be the track, or any property traceable to the 
property involved in the money laundering," which, he said, would 
include the sale proceeds. Cook said the Justice Department is also 
conducting a criminal investigation and has "interviewed some but not 
all of the (former) owners and a host of former employees."

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph LaPlante, who heads his office's 
criminal division, said he would not confirm a criminal probe is 
under way. But he said, "Randy Noe and some of the other 
co-defendants in that case were convicted of money laundering, among 
other things, and like all drug investigations, this one will 
continue until we have exhausted every avenue, and that includes the 
facilities through which the money was laundered." Money in paper 
bags Allan Hart closed the Lakes Region Greyhound Park in April 2005, 
three months after two track managers, including his nephew, Richard 
Hart, were indicted in New York on illegal gambling and 
money-laundering charges.

Allan Hart surrendered the track's license in May 2005 after the 
state Attorney General's Office called on state regulators to revoke 
the license. Richard Hart was convicted last year in New York of 
violating a federal law outlawing the interstate transmission of 
wagering information, according to the government's complaint in the 
forfeiture case.

In June 2005, federal authorities announced they had smashed a drug 
trafficking and money-laundering operation by arresting 24 people, 
including Noe, who now is serving 12 years in prison, according to 
court records. The government alleges that Richart Hart, as the 
track's general manager "was aware of Noe's drug dealing activities." 
It says Hart allowed Noe to "launder his drug proceeds by exchanging 
his small-denomination currency for $100 bills at the Park."

The complaint says that Noe "brought the cash to the betting windows.

Park employees would count the cash and deposit it into his betting 
account." It says that Richard Hart later "instructed Noe to bring 
the cash directly to him. Noe brought cash to Hart at least once for 
deposit into his betting account." The money was then allegedly 
brought to the pari-mutuels office window for counting and deposit 
into Noe's account.

"Noe also withdrew $10,000 or more numerous times without anyone 
filling out reporting forms as required by federal law," the 
complaint says. It says Allan Hart "disclosed" that the track did not 
file the proper Internal Revenue Service forms "when bettors have 
brought in $10,000 or more in cash as required by federal law."

The complaint recounts numerous other alleged laundering incidents.

In November 2003, it says, a Noe associate delivered to Noe a paper 
bag that contained about $35,000, which had been picked up from a 
Massachusetts drug dealer. Another incident involved delivery of a 
paper bag containing $11,000. Still another involved the delivery of 
"$15,000 and $20,000 in small denominations in bags."

Noe and an associate "counted the cash at the table in the Lakes Room 
and organized it with elastic bands.

Noe then had a track employee convert the cash into $50 and $100 
bills," the complaint says.

The new money was placed in Federal Express boxes for delivery "to 
pay for additional Oxycontin for Noe's drug distribution 
organization," the complaint says.

It says Allan Hart said he was told by a track employee that "Noe 
would bring in bags of money once or twice a week and ask her to 
count it. Each bag would contain between $35,000 and $50,000."

A 'leap of logic' Attorney Cook charged none of this warrants seizure 
of the sale proceeds.

He said federal attorneys "have made the leap of logic that, because 
Randy Noe was running money derived from the sale of drugs through 
his wagering account at the track, they are imputing knowledge of 
that fact to the (former) owners and operators.

So they seized the proceeds from all of them.

"When you run into a law like this," Cook said, "you realize how a 
lot of rights have been seriously eroded over the years as a result 
of trying to break up the drug smuggling that was going on in this country."

Filing claims on portions of the seized $3.3 million are former 
co-owners Allan Hart; Denise Hart, who is Richard Hart's wife; Joan 
Hart, who is Allan Hart's sister-in-law; Kenneth Hart, who is 
Richard's brother; Lisa Hart, who is Kenneth's wife; and former 40 
percent owner DiCesare.

Richard Hart's wife, Denise, says in a court filing that she "had no 
knowledge of the alleged (illicit) conduct" or of the "day-to-day 
operations, activities or business relations" among those who worked 
at the track. She says there is no "substantial connection" between 
the proceeds of the sale and the alleged money-laundering operation.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman