For a friend: Secret Service

[2boys]

What is the name of your state? OH

Hi, I'm going to try and be as clear as possible on this because it's not actually for me but for someone else. Unfortunately I don't have all the details.
A friend of mine in Texas was approached by some guys who asked her to open a bank account in her name so that they could transfer funds from africa (she is african too). They said they needed it to be in her name because of the political climate and how peoples bank accounts were frozen and people were not being allowed to withdraw their monies if they were on the "watchlist". She agreed because this actually was the truth that the government there was freezing accounts and getting up to all sorts of tricks.
Anyway $14,000 came into the account but then something happened where she found out about them stealing checks in the mail or something to that effect. She immediately realized that this was bad and left the account alone without ever having touched a penny.
Skip ahead almost 3+ years and she is now almost finished getting her green card, she hasn't committed a crime, has a child and one day her husband calls her to tell her that the Secret Service came and wanted to speak to her. She meets the agents and they basically tell her that they need to speak with her about what happened and that more than likely charges will be brought against her. Apparantly the guys who approached her are wanted for millions or something like that.
She is panicking and has hired a defense lawyer to the tune of $12,000. She doesn't understand why 1) it's taken so long for them to speak to her, 2) it's taking so long for the DA to decide when they'll bring her in, 3) what exactly she did wrong if she didn't touch the money and didn't know how it had been obtained nor the nature of the guys, 4) why her lawyer is trying to get her to plead guilty and saying that will lessen her charges.
She is petrified of going to jail and wants a chance to plead her innocence.
She fears her green card will be taken away from her and she'll be deported.

Sorry it's so long.
Thanx in advance for any advice.

 

[HomeGuru]

What is the name of your state? OH

Hi, I'm going to try and be as clear as possible on this because it's not actually for me but for someone else. Unfortunately I don't have all the details.
A friend of mine in Texas was approached by some guys who asked her to open a bank account in her name so that they could transfer funds from africa (she is african too). They said they needed it to be in her name because of the political climate and how peoples bank accounts were frozen and people were not being allowed to withdraw their monies if they were on the "watchlist". She agreed because this actually was the truth that the government there was freezing accounts and getting up to all sorts of tricks.
Anyway $14,000 came into the account but then something happened where she found out about them stealing checks in the mail or something to that effect. She immediately realized that this was bad and left the account alone without ever having touched a penny.
Skip ahead almost 3+ years and she is now almost finished getting her green card, she hasn't committed a crime, has a child and one day her husband calls her to tell her that the Secret Service came and wanted to speak to her. She meets the agents and they basically tell her that they need to speak with her about what happened and that more than likely charges will be brought against her. Apparantly the guys who approached her are wanted for millions or something like that.
She is panicking and has hired a defense lawyer to the tune of $12,000. She doesn't understand why 1) it's taken so long for them to speak to her, 2) it's taking so long for the DA to decide when they'll bring her in, 3) what exactly she did wrong if she didn't touch the money and didn't know how it had been obtained nor the nature of the guys, 4) why her lawyer is trying to get her to plead guilty and saying that will lessen her charges.
She is petrified of going to jail and wants a chance to plead her innocence.
She fears her green card will be taken away from her and she'll be deported.

Sorry it's so long.
Thanx in advance for any advice.

**A: she has a right to be worried. Rather than doing nothing, she should have contacted the authorities. Then she would have been not be guilty of aiding and abetting.

 

[2boys]

**A: she has a right to be worried. Rather than doing nothing, she should have contacted the authorities. Then she would have been not be guilty of aiding and abetting.

yeah, that's true. I think she was just scared and figured that leaving everything alone and not going near it was the best solution.
So even if the money was left in there and never touched, it's still really bad for her? but why did they take so long. we think they must have known for a while so why are they taking so long?
And by a long shot she's not the heavy hitter in this scenario, she's a small fish compared to the guys.
Also her husband wants to use this to take the child away when they divorce, he's waiting for the hammer to fall before he files so that it coincides with her going to jail (if that is the outcome) so that he'll have a better case for getting custody.