Ex-prosecutor Currin gets nearly six years in prison

Former U.S. Attorney Sam Currin is heading for nearly six years in prison for conspiring to launder proceeds from a computer scam.

U.S. District Judge Earl Britt on Tuesday sentenced Currin, 58, to 70 months in prison.

Federal prosecutors said one of Currin's clients was involved in the stock-manipulation scheme based on spam e-mail, mass faxes, Internet search optimization and voice mail broadcasting. They said Currin conspired to launder the proceeds from the scam through his law firm's trust accounts.

Currin formed an Anguillan company and opened a debit card account in the name of the company at a foreign bank, prosecutors charged. He then received thousands of dollars into the account but failed to disclose its existence or the income on his 2004 federal income tax returns.

When he was called to testify in 2005 before an investigating grand jury, prosecutors said, he conspired to withhold documents and provide false testimony. Among other things, he falsely denied having off-shore business dealings, prosecutors said.

Currin pleaded guilty in November to charges of lying to the grand jury, obstructing the IRS and conspiring to launder $1.3 million. Currin received more than $280,000 for his role in the conspiracy, prosecutors said.

Currin served as the top federal prosecutor in Eastern North Carolina from 1981 to 1987. He was appointed a state Superior Court judge after leaving the prosecutor's office, holding the position until 1990. He later became chairman of the state Republican Party.

Currin's wife, Margaret, also was a U.S. attorney.

Britt, a judge from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District, sentenced Curren after judges in the Western District, where the case was prosecuted, recused themselves.