Late Wednesday afternoon, hours after IND Monthly broke the story about two additional guilty pleas in the “Mr. Miyagi” conspiracy case, U.S. Attorney Stephanie Finley, who has been silent since the indictments were unsealed on Oct. 2, issued a press release confirming that Boyd Barrow and Joshua Espinoza of Georgia had indeed pleaded guilty. Those guilty pleas, entered during a hearing in federal court Tuesday, come on the heels of two similar pleas by Drew T. Green and Thomas William Malone Jr., also both of Georgia, in September.
All four pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled dangerous substance analogue, Mr. Miyagi. Punishable by up to 20 years in prison, it is the most serious offense in the indictment.
Finley's press release that evening contained new information regarding attorneys Daniel Stanford of Lafayette and Barry Domingue of Carencro.
Domingue is the lawyer/business partner of Curious Goods owner Richard Buswell. Curious Goods was the retailer of synthetic marijuana, Mr. Miyagi, which the feds claim is an illegal substance.
Stanford, one of Lafayette’s top criminal defense attorneys, has been cooperating with IND Monthly’s ongoing look into the federal conspiracy case. The most recent plea agreement, however, contains information that doesn't jibe with what Stanford has been saying about how he got pulled into this synthetic marijuana case, why he was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by various parties involved in the case and how he came to be named one of nine alleged co-conspirators by the feds.
So now the big question: Who's telling the truth — Stanford or the defendants seeking favorable sentencing?
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| Daniel Stanford |
Since the indictment was unsealed, Stanford has maintained that his involvement with Curious Goods stems from his representation of Buswell in a federal securities fraud case. The two met through a boxer Stanford trained and Buswell sponsored, Stanford tells IND Montlhy. Stanford does admit to incorporating a Louisiana chapter of the Retail Compliance Association. RCA’s purpose, according to both Stanford and the group’s founder, Dan Francis, another of the alleged conspirators, is to act as a unifier between law enforcement, legislators and the distributors of synthetic drugs.
"Look at the paper trail and you can see my role with Richard Buswell is in the securities fraud matter," says Stanford.
In previous interviews, Stanford stipulated that he started developing his legal interest in synthetic drugs, or as RCA defines them, “research chemicals,” between October and November 2011, culminating with the Louisiana RCA’s incorporation on Nov. 28, 2011.
A week later, on Dec. 7, Stanford says he received an unexpected phone call from Buswell, inviting him to a meeting at his home later that evening.
Stanford attended the meeting and says he addressed the crowd of Curious Goods employees and franchise owners for about five minutes, telling them synthetic cannabinoids represent a new area of the law and to call a lawyer if they are ever contacted by law enforcement officers. The next day, local law enforcement and DEA launch a massive raid, arresting dozens and seizing millions of dollars in “Mr. Miyagi” products from Curious Goods locations throughout Acadiana.
Stanford’s version of events doesn't quite match up with Wednesday’s release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Stanford says all the money he received from Buswell, including the checks he received from Curious Goods, were only for his work in the federal securities fraud case, and never for legal counsel pertaining to the sale of “Mr. Miyagi.” That duty, he argues, belonged to attorney Domingue. Buswell also is recorded making that statement in a wire-tapped conversation taken by federal agents inside the Iberia Parish Jail. IND Monthly was allowed to review the transcripts of Buswell's statements in Stanford's law office.
The new information released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office shows the existence of a paper trail between Stanford and the makers of “Mr. Miyagi,” which appears to contradict Stanford's previous statements that he only worked on Buswell's securities fraud case.
Barrow and Espinoza owned and operated Pinnacle Products. Using chemicals purchased from NutraGenomics — the company owned by Drew Green and Tommy Malone; the first defendants to plea — Barrow and Espinoza manufactured and distributed “Mr. Miyagi,” their line of synthetic marijuana. They advertised it as a "non-consumable” type of air freshener or “Potpourri.” Of the numerous businesses supplied by Barrow and Espinoza, their biggest customer was Curious Goods. In court documents, the feds say that from March 2011 to early December of that year, Pinnacle was paid about $3.3 million from the sale of Mr. Miyagi. They received about half of that amount, $1.5 million, from Curious Goods, according to the feds.
During Tuesday's hearing, Barrow and Espinoza admitted to writing Stanford a series of checks through their company, Pinnacle. The checks, totaling $39,171, are dated between Oct. 28 and Dec. 6, 2011. They testified in court that the checks were for legal services Stanford provided to Pinnacle and for dues to Stanford's RCA. Barrow and Espinoza admitted in court that all of the money they paid to Stanford and attorney Domingue were proceeds from the sale of Mr. Miyagi.
Here are the checks Barrow and Espinoza admit to paying Stanford:
(Oct. 28, 2011) - $12,500 check from Pinnacle to Stanford. “Retainer” written in the memo line of the check.
(Nov. 3, 2011) - $6,250 check from Pinnacle to Stanford. Memo line reads “RCA Dues.”
(Nov. 21, 2011) - $13,000 check from Barrow to Stanford. Memo line reads “Legal.”
(Dec. 6, 2011) - $7,421.69 cashier’s check from Pinnacle to Stanford.
IND Monthly talked with Stanford Thursday morning, and he requested time to review the information included in Wednesday’s release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. As of Friday at 11 a.m. Stanford had yet to respond.
Both Barrow and Espinoza acknowledged in court Tuesday that the packaging of Mr. Miyagi was "designed and placed on the product to be intentionally misleading as to both what was in the product and what the product's intended use was knowing full well that it would be ingested by humans."
The feds have moved to seize more than $20 million in cash the defendants received either directly or indirectly from the drug trafficking ring, a 2006 Mercedes Benz X65 sedan, a 2005 Baja Outlaw speed boat, and 2002 Pontiac Firebird (the owners were not listed), and Stanford's home at 120 Branton Drive in Lafayette. According to the tax assessor's office, the home is valued at $572,000.
Read more of IND Monthly’s conspiracy coverage here.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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