COEUR D'ALENE – Sherlann Simon, 34, of North Las Vegas, Nevada, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to launder money, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. Simon was indicted by a federal grand Jury in Coeur d'Alene on January 20, 2016.
Simon admitted that, since approximately 2010, she laundered $482,955.71 that had been obtained by a drug trafficking organization that was led by Simon’s mother, Loren Toelle. The organization sold drugs in Idaho, Washington, Nevada, Montana, and North Dakota. Simon participated in the conspiracy by depositing the organization’s drug profits into her personal bank accounts and business accounts belonging to Vegas Stylz House of Beauty, a hair salon in Las Vegas, Nevada owned by Simon and Toelle. Simon used a portion of the drug profits deposited into her bank accounts to pay expenses related to the organization, further promoting the drug trafficking organization.
Simon is the second individual to plead guilty out of an indictment which charges 11 individuals. In addition to pleading guilty, Simon agreed to forfeit any interest she has in real property, jewelry, and cash held by herself or co-conspirators, as outlined in the indictment.
The charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, and up to three years of supervised release.
Sentencing is set for January 19, 2017, before Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill at the federal courthouse in Coeur d'Alene.
The case is the result of a joint investigation and cooperative law enforcement efforts of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), including the FBI North Idaho Violent Crime Task Force, the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office, Post Falls Police Department, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), U.S. Marshal Service and Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Other agencies involved include the Williston, North Dakota Police Department, the United States Attorney’s Offices in Las Vegas, Nevada and North Dakota, the FBI in North Dakota, Williams County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Border Patrol, Williston Police Department, North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Northwest Narcotics Task Force, the Washington State Patrol, the U.S. Marshal Service in Las Vegas, IRS-CI in Las Vegas, and the DEA in Las Vegas.
The OCDETF program is a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations.