State v. Walters

The State appeals from a downward departure sentence imposed by the trial court after John Stephen Walters (“the defendant”) entered a guilty plea to one count of organized fraud in the first degree, one count of grand theft in the first degree, and fifty-two counts of money laundering in various degrees. We reverse.

The defendant, through one of his companies, A Auto Insurance Corp., was the seller involved in a December 2002 real estate closing. The defendant’s property, which was in foreclosure, was sold for $2 million, $1,059 million of which was due to Bank One, the holder of an…