Uncle Sam Has Eyes on Lawyer Andrew Bennett for Alleged Money Laundering

Andrew Bennett

Forty-six year old Andrew Bennett is said to be wanted by U.S. authorities in connection with money laundering charges in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte told News Five that he is in possession of documents supporting and requesting extradition of a Belizean national, whom he did not identify as he had not yet reviewed the documentation. However, other outlets have named Bennett, a partner in the law firm of Glenn D. Godfrey and Company, although the company has taken his name down from the website recently. The documentation was first received by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however Minister Wilfred Elrington is on vacation in the U.S. and not available. Bennett was indicted by a Puerto Rico grand jury for seven counts of money laundering and an arrest warrant is dated from July of 2015. According to reports, Bennett was caught up in a special operation which targeted big players in the Belize banking sector. In 2013, a confidential informant in Belize told agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that political figures and high profile bankers were running money laundering operations for drug trafficking organizations through two international banks in Belize. An undercover agent set up a meeting with Bennett as an attorney. The agent explained that he represented a Colombian and Puerto Rican drug trafficking organization that needed to launder drug money. Bennett reportedly told the agent that he could set up some “shell” international business companies to provide a front for laundering the monies. The report cites that in May of 2015, the agent took a quarter of a million U.S. dollars in a backpack to a meeting with Bennett at a local restaurant. After receiving the money, Bennett, who was under surveillance from the Anti-Drug Unit of the Police Department, went to another local business of which he informed the agent that he would be using that business to launder the money. The owner of that business has denied knowing anything about Bennett’s activities, but it is said that Bennett and his driver walked into the business with the same backpack and exited with it later on, apparently empty. The agent states he instructed Bennett to wire the money to accounts Atlanta, New York and Puerto Rico. Bennett allegedly took a twenty-percent commission of fifty thousand U.S. dollars for himself. We have reached out to Bennett, however, he has not responded to our messages. As for the extradition process, Belize has a treaty with the U.S., but the state must first be convinced that there is a prima facie case in existence and a magistrate would issue a provisional warrant for arrest, as was the case with the Seawell brothers, Dion Bruce and Karol Mello, though their charges are substantially graver than Bennett’s.  To our knowledge this is the first time a practicing attorney has been indicted for questionable conduct of his profession, not to mention requested for extradition.