CROSSVILLE CHRONICLE

Gamble, who most recently ran a private law practice in Crossville, is a Kingston resident and is married to Roane County Election Registrar Terry Gamble.

Efforts to contact Gamble failed today. Bret York, a Crossville attorney in the office where Gamble's local practice was housed, said Gamble is no longer associated with that law firm.

Mrs. Gamble was quoted in today's Roane County News as stating a story published in Monday's The Tennessean failed to paint an accurate picture of the situation.

The specific charge Gamble pled guilty to before U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Wiseman Jr. involves a $169,000 wire transfer made Nov. 13, 1994, of funds "obtained from the illegal scheme to the Bank of Roane County in Kingston," Dan Boone of the Internal Revenue Service said yesterday.

"Over the course of the scheme, Gamble made or caused to be made additional transfers which the government estimated to be over $600,000, all

of which was used for his or his family's personal benefit," Boone continued in a press release. The case resulted from a multi-district, multi-agency investigation which was conducted by the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, the FBI, and the U.S. Customs Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Washko prosecuted the case.

In 1993, Gamble and other co-conspirators, including Lawrence Glynn Sangaree, also known as Larry Sangaree, and Frank Dzwankowski, began soliciting investors to participate in what was purported to be syndication of assets for investment purposes.

Gamble was introduced to Sangaree by a mutual friend.

Initially Gamble was unaware that Sangaree was convicted of murder in 1970 in Florida and that Dzwonkowski had been convicted on drug charges in South Florida in the 1980s.

Businessmen seeking venture capital were required to pay an advance fee, ranging from $50,00 to $800,000, and to sign a syndication agreement which contained "vague, confusing, and misleading information."

As part of the scheme, the government alleges, the "syndicators" would inform the investors that they had breached a condition of the syndication agreement and had forfeited the advance fee, which Gamble then had wired to an off-shore trust account.

That bank was identified in The Tennessean as Caribbean American Bank.

Gamble was recruited by Sangaree to act as an escrow agent in the supposed venture capital company to receive and distribute funds. To give the appearance of legitimacy to the scheme, Gamble was touted to prospective investors as a well-respected attorney and former judge from Tennessee.

As part of the scheme, William Cooper assisted Gamble in setting up the Caribbean American Bank in 1994 where Gamble is general counsel and a director. Cooper is an American attorney who resides in Antigua, West Indies, and is considered a willing participant in the scheme, as well as other unrelated schemes, Boone said.

Cooper is the director of American International Bank, which has correspondent accounts with a few on-shore American banks and at least one Canadian bank, and is the other director of Caribbean American Bank.

An examination of Gamble's trust account shows that approximately $3.4 million derived from this scheme was wire-transferred to Antigua.

Federal investigators started receiving complaints on Gamble's activities in 1994 by investors who claimed they had been swindled and demanded their money back. No victims interviewed by federal agents acknowledged ever receiving a refund of their invested funds.

Washko said that Gamble initially thought Sangaree was a legitimate businessman, but eventually came to the realization that he had become involved in a major criminal fraud. Despite such realization, Gamble continued in his role in the scheme.

According to Washko, the government is concerned that no more investors fall victim to this illegal scheme. "The word needs to get out to the public that anyone dealing with Caribbean American Bank or the individuals named in the information needs to stop," Washko said, "and immediately notify the IRS, FBI or this office."