TRIBE INQUIRY TRAPPED DEFENDANTS, LAWYERS SAY

The Money Laundering Case, Begun To Trap Seminole Leaders, Is Built On
Falsehood, Attorneys Say In A Miami Trial.

MIAMI -- Five years ago, an informant working for the federal
government brought his DEA contact a juicy tip: A circle of South
Florida businessmen was planning to launder drug money through the
Seminole Tribe of Florida.

He said the group had met in 1995 at a Sheraton hotel near Hollywood
with the tribe's chairman and well-known leader, Chief James Billie, a
DEA agent testified Thursday in U.S. District Court.

Federal prosecutors say neither Billie nor anyone else in the tribe
wound up laundering the money. But the tip led to an investigation two
years later into Stephen Weil and Yale Garber, two men on trial in
Miami federal court on money laundering charges.

The two men face six counts of conspiracy and money laundering, each
carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Federal authorities
say the pair tried to launder money through the tribe and other
organizations in 1997 and 1998 for a DEA agent posing as a drug dealer.

In court Thursday, defense attorney Benedict Kuehne told jurors that
the 74-year-old Garber was just trying to help his lifelong friend,
Weil, 64, "who has been an associate and a friend with Chief Billie,
the revered chief."

Defense attorneys say both men got pulled into a federal investigation
into the tribe through a convicted criminal, Vinicio Avegnano, whom
the DEA brought to South Florida from Italy as a government-sponsored
informant.

Avegnano, 65, had been sentenced in Italy on smuggling charges in
1969, on fraud charges in 1978, and on forgery charges in 1991,
according to records provided by defense attorneys. The DEA paid
Avegnano $450,000 to help build money laundering cases, attorneys said.

"Even with this despicable record, Mr. Avegnano was not only able to
come to the United States, but he was embraced by certain members of
the government," said Kuehne, the attorney.

The government used the informant because it wanted to catch the
Seminoles in a crime, Kuehne said. But, he added, "the evidence will
show that neither Stephen Weil, Yale Garber nor Chief Billie was
interested in this despicable plan."

Kuehne said the 1995 meeting with Chief Billie at the Sheraton near
Hollywood, which a DEA agent testified about Thursday, never took
place. "It is not true," he said.

Chief Billie told the Times through a spokesman last year that he did
not know Weil and did not recall meeting him. A tribe attorney said
this week that the Seminoles have never engaged in money laundering.

But in audio tapes played to a jury Thursday and in transcripts
entered into evidence, both defendants and other people mention
Billie's name repeatedly during conversations secretly taped recorded
by DEA agents.

On March 26, 1997, transcripts show Garber asking co-defendant Sergio
Paolo Masocco, who has entered a plea agreement in the case: "So you
want to do it only with Billie or what?"

Federal prosecutors say they were talking about laundering money with
Chief Billie.

In a May 3, 1997 meeting, transcripts show Masocco asking
defendant Stephen Weil: "Do you still have a relationship with Jim?"

Weil: "Sure, he's going to be with me tomorrow."

Weil said he had given Chief Billie five boxes of Romeo and Juliet
cigars and a box of Monte Cristos, according to court
transcripts.

"I'm just saying if you like it, I can bring Billie to the table, and
he'll tell you what he's getting now," Weil said, according to
transcripts.

The group, which includes Avegnano, the Italian DEA informant, also
talked about Billie's fondness for airplanes. At one point, Weil said
Billie was looking to buy a boat that would cost about $2- or
$3-million, but could come with an invoice that showed that it cost
$5- million.

But unknown to the DEA agents recording the conversation was the fact
that Weil also was working as an informant for the FBI. Weil's
attorney said Weil was just dropping Billie's name to help build a
case for the FBI.

Prosecutors said Weil did work as an FBI informant, but then crossed
the line. He was never authorized to set up stings or launder money
for the bureau, prosecutor Jena King said.