Trayvon Martin was born 18 years ago this month and killed by George Zimmerman a year ago today. His killing unleashed massive outrage and countless protests, #hashtags and Facebook profile pics of people in hoodies demanding that Zimmerman be arrested, charged and not allowed to "stand his ground." But a year later, most of the hashtags are gone and the hoodied profile pics have fallen to the back of Facebook photo albums. Meanwhile, a mother and father are still left to mourn their son and the man finally arrested for his murder is back out on bail. But he shouldn't be. And I don't understand why people aren't making a bigger deal out of it.
Ever since journalist Frances Robles published a series of audiotaped jailhouse conversations between George Zimmerman and his wife, Shellie Zimmerman, in the Miami Herald eight months ago, one question keeps coming up for me: why haven't the Feds every charged the Zimmermans with financial crimes? In the tapes and transcripts published in the Herald, an April 15, 2012 conversation seems to clearly implicate the couple in a somewhat serious money laundering-esque offense as they figure out what to do with the over $130,000 that supporters donated to Zimmerman's Paypal account after he shot Trayvon Martin. Besides ensuring her husband that the money would grant him "a great life." The Zimmermans also had the following exchange.
George Zimmerman: "...cause you're gonna take out $10 and putit, and keep it with you, in cash right? So that you...less that $10"Shellie Z: "Well, yeahlike nine."George Z.: "Right. Um. Let'sjust say $10. I'm wondering, youhave more than $10 right?"[later]George Z: "Right.That's what I'm saying. So if you have more than $10 then you can, maybe thatsame day, put 10 in hers and she can take the 10 out..."
"If Mrs. Zimmerman intentionallystructured the financial transactions in a manner to keep the offense under$10,000, not only may she have committed perjury in the state case, but shealso may have run afoul of several federal statutes and could face seriousfederal criminal charges,"
originally posted in letstalkaboutit.info