E. F. Hutton Pays $1 Million on Money-Laundering Charges

E. F. Hutton & Co. paid more than $1 million in fines today for its guilty plea to three federal money laundering charges involving its Providence office.

Hutton attorney E. Lawrence Barcella Jr. signed the guilty plea and turned a check for the fine over to U.S. Atty. Lincoln C. Almond.

The brokerage company was fined $10,000 for one count of conspiracy and $500,000 on each of two counts of violating federal cash transaction reporting laws.

The plea follows the May 6 filing of criminal charges against Hutton in U.S. District Court, accusing the company of failing to report at least $532,000 in currency transactions at the Providence office. Federal law requires that cash transactions of greater than $10,000 be reported to the IRS.

The people for whom the transactions were allegedly made were not named. Almond has said up to $1.2 million was involved, some of it from organized crime figures and some from businessmen.