Orange County Teacher Jailed on Money Laundering Charge

A science teacher at Edison High School in Huntington Beach was in Newport Beach City Jail Wednesday, charged with money laundering after police confiscated more than $1.3 million in cash and gold, a 53-foot boat, two Maseratis and a Porsche.

The teacher, James R. Hoyland, 42, of Dana Point, was arrested Tuesday at his home. Also arrested was John F. Ford, 41, of Long Beach, a self-employed boat maker who police allege was Hoyland’s accomplice. Neither resisted arrest. Both men were held on $2-million bail.

During a daylong operation Tuesday, officers from the Newport Beach and Long Beach police departments and the California Department of Justice served search warrants at locations in Orange and Los Angeles counties that netted the cash and gold and a total of five cars belonging to the two suspects, Newport Beach police spokesman Bob Oakley said.

The investigation began a year ago, Oakley said, when the Bank of Newport notified the Newport Beach Police Department that Hoyland was making suspicious cash transactions of just under $10,000. Transactions over $10,000 must be reported by banks to the federal government.

Oakley said Hoyland apparently was unaware of a state law requiring banks to report suspicious cash transactions of more than $5,000.

A Newport Beach police investigation showed that between October, 1986, and February, 1987, Hoyland deposited $60,000 at the bank and withdrew large amounts of cash.

“We have been unable to determine any legitimate source for this income,” Oakley said. “We have conducted a thorough investigation, and (Hoyland) did not inherit it, win it, or get it from any other legitimate sources.”

He added, “Here was a teacher earning just $44,000 a year, and yet he was able to pay cash for a $200,000 boat and an ’87 (car).”

Hoyland and Ford are charged with money laundering, a felony.