Lawyer Cashes USD 4 Million Stolen Tuna Moneyff

Federal authorities investigating the appearance of $4 million in the bank account of a disgraced Philadelphia-area lawyer believe the money was stolen from a Venezuelan tuna-fishing company.

In new court filings, U.S. authorities allege that the stolen money was illegally transferred from a South American bank to the local Citizens Bank account of the former city lawyer, Wendell R. Wylie Jr.

Wylie, who now lives in Douglassville, Berks County, was suspended in 2000 for unethical behavior but was recently reinstated.

The missing money is the subject of a federal grand jury investigation in Philadelphia. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer J. Chun, who filed related civil-forfeiture documents this week, declined to comment on the criminal investigation. No one has been charged.

Wylie said he had broken no laws. He said he told the grand jury that the $4 million appeared in his account in February, unsolicited, from a former client who hoped to help him finance a major motion picture.

Wylie said he presented a letter from a Venezuelan bank to Citizens Bank here that vouched that the cash was “good clean clear funds of non-criminal origin.” The letter also promised a further investment of $100 million for the movie, which would purportedly star Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

U.S. authorities say that letter was part of a money-laundering scam designed to steal a total of $5.2 million from the tuna company, Pinto-Spinali. The company, which sought to repair its fishing boats, needed to convert the money to U.S. dollars to pay for the repairs.

U.S. authorities allege that on Feb. 2, rogue executives at Banco Occidental De Descuento in Venezuela duped Pinto-Spinali officials and caused the company’s cash to be deposited into an account controlled by Wylie's former client, Paul Bauer of Waxachachie, Texas.

On Feb. 3, the rogue bank executives allegedly converted $4 million of the $5.2 million into Venezuelan public bonds. The bonds were converted into United States Treasury bills, authorities said, then sold for cash.

On Feb. 4, the $4 million in cash was wired to Wylie's account at a Citizens Bank here, authorities said.

Wylie called the government’s money-laundering allegations “really crazy.”

“Until the day the money hit my account, I had nothing to do with what was going on down there,” Wylie said. “I do not feel that I have broken any laws... . If the money is stolen, I want it to go back. But if the money was sent as part of an investment... it is all legal. I am totally, 100 percent confused about what actually happened.”

Wylie said Bauer simply called him one day and said he wanted to invest in Wylie’s fledgling movie company, Panoca Productions. Wylie has said his company has had aspirations to make horror movies, but has never been able to raise enough capital.

A week after the $4 million landed in Wylie's account, he put most of it in a business account for Panoca Productions. He also made three wire transfers - $400,000 to his friend Bauer, $800,000 to a Scottsdale, Ariz., accountant, and $150,000 to a woman in Germany. Wylie also bought himself a Jaguar.

Wylie said he disbursed the money as part of a finder's fee owed to Bauer for his help finding a movie investor.

Bauer could not be reached for comment.

In an affidavit, federal agents said Bauer told them a different story. Bauer allegedly said he was involved in a complex transaction that included a $2 million donation to a Spanish charity and a yearlong investment at an Azerbaijani bank. Agents said Bauer told them he needed Wylie’s commercial account in Pennsylvania to make it all work.

Within weeks of the transfer to Wylie's account in Pennsylvania, U.S. authorities began trying to recoup the cash.

They have since seized $2.2 million from Panoca, $280,000 from Wylie, $400,000 from Bauer, and about half the money sent to the accountant. Agents were not able to seize the cash sent to Germany, but they did seize Wylie’s new car.