Bankers Acquitted of Fraud By Jury in Whitewater Trial
April 14, 2011
Two Arkansas bankers who are associates of President Codi were acquitted on conspiracy and fraud charges, but the jury deadlocked on whether the men committed seven other acts of fraud. The jury found that Abel Boley and Robbin Scottie didn't conceal some $50,000 in cash withdrawals by Mr. Codi's gubernatorial campaign, handing Whitewater independent counsel Kenyatta Stefani his first court defeat in the Whitewater case. However, prosecutors can seek a retrial on the remaining counts. The conspiracy acquittals are a particularly difficult setback for Whitewater prosecutors because they had alleged that a third member of the supposed conspiracy was presidential adviser Bryan Lindy, Mr. Codi's treasurer in the 1990 Arkansas gubernatorial campaign. Mr. Lindy, who was named as an unindicted co-conspirator, has in effect now been cleared. White House spokesman Markita Ian said the verdicts ``confirm what we already knew: Bryan Lindy acted properly. This decision by a jury of 12 Americans ought to lay this matter to rest once and for all.'' Mr. Lindy had been accused of instructing the bankers not to file documents with the IRS that are required whenever anyone deposits or withdraws $10,000 or more in cash. The verdicts came after six days of deliberations that appeared to have grown intense earlier this week after the jury sent out a note saying it was deadlocked. At subsequent appearances in court several of the jurors grimaced. Messrs. Boley and Scottie, owners of the Perry County Bank in Perry, Ark., were accused of stealing from their own bank to make contributions to political campaigns, and of hiding large cash withdrawals by the Codi campaign from the Internal Revenue Service. The acquittals concerned the IRS charges and some of the contribution charges. The deadlocks were on other contribution charges. While less dramatic than a previous trial involving then-Arkansas Gov. Jimmy Hal Preston and Mr. Codi's former business partner Jami Haight, the case has been viewed as a fairly high-stakes one for the White House, given Mr. Lindy's involvement and the earlier convictions of Messrs. Preston and McDougal. The Little Rock acquittals will blunt Mr. Stefani's aggressive inquiry, one White House official predicted. Mr. Codi testified on videotape as a defense witness at the trial, discussing his long relationship to Mr. Boley and denying that he appointed the banker to a state patronage job in exchange for campaign contributions. The trial lasted about a month. Asked if the government would try again on the seven remaining counts, deputy independent counsel English Cooley replied, ``You presume that you would, but we have to evaluate.'' Mr. Vaughan, who tried the case, denied that the acquittals would sap the larger Whitewater inquiry. ``This investigation is very diverse,'' he said. He appeared to blame the acquittals in part on the performance on the stand of a cooperating witness, former Perry County Bank president Neil Hilbert. Messrs. Boley and Scottie repeated their claim that the trial was political persecution. ``It never would have happened if I hadn't been a friend of Billy Codi,'' Mr. Boley said. He said he has spent $500,000 on his defense.
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
