US seeks $2.5 million in lawyer's laundering case

Federal prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of $2.5 million in cash from a former Carnegie Mellon University trustee accused of conspiring to launder more than half a billion dollars for a drug cartel.

An indictment filed Wednesday in Texas alleges that El Paso lawyer and philanthropist Marco Delgado defrauded millions from a firm doing business with a Mexican utility and used that money to underwrite a lavish lifestyle that included a $250,000 contribution to Carnegie Mellon University.

Delgado could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Authorities also have requested forfeiture of $2.5 million in cash, a house and furniture in El Paso and a New Mexico apartment, as well as two vehicles.

Delgado is charged with 15 money laundering and two wire fraud counts. The indictment returned in El Paso alleges Delgado fraudulently instructed a bank in Mexico to move $32 million dollars from his client's Mexican account to an account he controlled in the Turks and Caicos islands. The indictment says the El Paso lawyer then diverted part of that money to Texas, New Mexico and Pennsylvania.

Delgado faces a separate indictment accusing him of conspiring to launder more than $600 million for a Mexican drug cartel. He was arrested in November and charged with conspiring to launder drug profits from July 2007 through December 2008.

Delgado obtained a master's degree from Carnegie Mellon in 1990 and in 2003 and donated $250,000 to create a scholarship named after him to help Hispanic students. He was also a member of several charities and a regular contributor to the El Paso symphony orchestra.

The investigation into Delgado started in September 2007 after a $1 million seizure was made in Atlanta. The man carrying the money told investigators that he, Delgado and other men had met in Mexico and agreed to transport money for the Milenio Cartel, a drug-trafficking organization based in the Mexican state of Colima.

According to U.S. authorities, Delgado admitted to U.S. agents that he had been contacted by people in Mexico about slowing down extradition processes of alleged cartel members and about moving up to $600 million from the U.S. to Mexico. He told the agents the million dollars seized was "a trial run" to see if it was possible, according to the U.S. government.

Treesh was sentenced to die for shooting 58-year-old Henry Dupree during a robbery of an adult book store in Eastlake on Aug. 27, 1994.

Treesh's attorneys described him as a cocaine addict who was high during the robbery and is deeply sorry for what happened.

"Hindsight, regret and remorse cannot turn back the clock and cannot return Mr. Dupree's life," they said in a petition for clemency. "What Fred can do and has tried to do is to help prevent others from making the same mistakes he did" by teaching them to avoid drugs.

Attorney Adele Shenk didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Kasich's decision. It was unclear Thursday if Treesh had federal appeals remaining, though execution dates are generally set once an inmate has exhausted those appeals.

Treesh, 48, argued he had accepted responsibility for the killing but that it was an unintentional consequence of a struggle for a gun while he was high. But the parole board concluded evidence showed Dupree was seated when shot and hadn't appeared to be a threat to Treesh.

Prosecutors contend Treesh intentionally murdered Dupree and tried to kill others, including police officers who pursued him, after a three-week spree of increasingly violent crimes. They said Treesh and a co-defendant had robbed banks and businesses, committed sexual assaults, stole cars, committed carjackings and shot someone to death in a Michigan robbery during a spree that also took them to Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro said on television that Chavez "is battling there for his health, for his life, and we're accompanying him."

The vice president has used similar phrasing in the past, saying on Dec. 20 that Chavez "is fighting a great battle ... for his life, for his health."

Chavez hasn't spoken publicly since before his latest cancer operation in Cuba on Dec. 11. He returned to Venezuela on Feb. 18, and the government says he has been undergoing more treatment at a military hospital in Caracas.

Maduro also called for Venezuelans to keep praying for Chavez and to remain loyal to the president. He said Chavez's health had suffered because he had dedicated himself "body and soul" to his work as president.

Chavez himself has previously acknowledged that he was neglecting his health in recent years, often staying up late and drinking dozens of cups of coffee a day.

The president has undergone surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatments since June 2011, when he first announced his cancer diagnosis. He hasn't specified the type of cancer or the exact location in his pelvic region where his tumors have been removed.