For Immediate Release
Jim Rybicki
Public Information Officer
Phone (703) 842-4050 Fax: (703) 549-5202
Email: usavae.press@usdoj.gov
www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae
October 23, 2007
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For Immediate Release Jim Rybicki Public Information Officer Phone (703) 842-4050 Fax: (703) 549-5202 Email: usavae.press@usdoj.gov www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae
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October 23, 2007 |
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Former Federal Official and Two Area Businessmen
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(Alexandria, Virginia) – Sharon Rudolph Connelly, 67, of Springfield, Virginia, was convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering after a trial before United States District Judge Claude M. Hilton. Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington Field Office; Charles Pine, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation; and Colonel David M. Rohrer, Chief of Police, Fairfax County Police Department, made the announcement.
Connelly faces up to 20 years in federal prison and forfeiture up to $7.8 million including all assets of her businesses used in the money laundering conspiracy. Sentencing is scheduled for January 25, 2008.
According to court documents and the evidence at trial, Connelly conspired to launder money on behalf of her boyfriend, Raj Kumar Bansal, 63, of Annandale, Virginia, who was convicted by guilty plea on September 21, 2007, of operating a racketeering conspiracy involving the operation of an illegal gambling business. Connelly is an attorney and member of the Virginia Bar and was a former federal government official for 27 years, including at the Internal Revenue Service and as director of the Office of Inspector and Auditor at the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Connelly used her business, Executive Loans, to launder and conceal gambling debts owed to Bansal by turning the debts into mortgages on the gamblers’ homes.
A second defendant in the same trial, Donovan Anthony Moncrieffe, 39, of Alexandria, Virginia, was convicted of racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Moncrieffe also faces up to 20 years in federal prison and will forfeit $112,349.86 as part of his conviction. Moncrieffe will be sentenced on February 8, 2008. The final defendant, Krishna Pillai Balakrishnan Nair, 64, of Alexandria, Virginia, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy charges on October 15, 2007. Nair faces up to 20 years in federal prison and will be sentenced on January 11, 2008.
To date a total of 14 defendants have been convicted as part of this investigation, referred to as “Operation Underdog.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, and the Fairfax County Police Department investigated this case. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Daniel Grooms and Edmund Power.