The money was apparently filtered thru several front organizations but it ended up in the defendants personal bank accounts. It doesn’t make much difference who set up the scheme (although it is alleged that the defendants personally did so) if the money ended up in their accounts after they told the donors they were not receiving a cent. And they attempted to hide and cover up after they found out there was an investigation.
The consciousness of guilt is overwhelming.
Ok, well you are not really responding to my points. If funds went (250k not a million, according to a previous poster) to a non-profit that would have paid him the same amount anyway, yeah it does make a big difference. The indictment says he set it up personally - does it say he did not use a lawyer or accountant because reliance on expert professional advice may under some circumstances be a defense to crimes requiring the establishment of intent. If four people are charged with personally setting up the arrangement, is it likely that there were varying degrees of knowledge about what was going on? Perhaps. I don’t know what the facts are and would urge others to realize that they do not either.