Atlanta jeweler arrested on money laundering charges

By Beth Braverman

JULY 27, 2006 - Atlanta -- Authorities arrested a 38-year-old jeweler after he was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that he laundered drug money through his two jewelry stores in the Atlanta area.

Toros Seher, 38, owner of Chaplin's and Chaplin's Midtown in Atlanta and Atlantic Station, Ga., was arrested without incident and investigators executed search warrants on his stores and his homes in Alpharetta, Ga., and Atlantic Station, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta.

Seher was expected to appear before a federal magistrate on the charges Thursday, the release said. He was charged with four counts of money laundering or conspiracy to launder money. If convicted, Seher faces up to 20 years in prison on each of the four counts of money laundering or conspiracy to launder money and up to five years in prison on each count of failing to file the required forms for large cash transactions, prosecutors said.

The U.S. Attorney's office claims that undercover Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents made three cash purchases at the stores for more than $10,000, and Seher did not appropriately report the transactions, either failing to file Form 8300, as required by the IRS, or telling the agents to "use any name and address," on the forms.

According to prosecutors, the agents made audio and video tapes of the interactions with Sheher, who they say "knew that the jewelry sales were being used to launder the money from criminal activity," the release said. Federal law requires that retailers document all cash purchases worth more than $10,000.

Calls made to Chaplin's seeking comment on this story were not immediately returned Thursday.

Source: http://www.nationaljeweler.com/nationaljeweler/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002914123