CORRECTION

A report on Page 1A Wednesday on the indictment of former U.S. Attorney Sam Currin incorrectly described his wife Margaret's job at Campbell University's law school. She is an associate dean and professor.

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Former U.S. Attorney Sam Currin walked into the courthouse Tuesday where he prosecuted criminals in the 1980s, this time facing charges of his own.

Federal prosecutors said Currin, a familiar face in the state's political and legal circles, was involved in a scheme to help people set up offshore bank accounts, offshore credit cards and foreign trusts, all to help them evade federal income tax.

They also accused Currin, 57, of Raleigh, of lying to and withholding evidence from a federal grand jury in Charlotte that is investigating a complex securities fraud scheme.

Currin faces seven felony charges, including tax conspiracy, witness tampering and perjury.

The 36-page indictment unsealed Tuesday also charged Wilmington lawyer Ricky E. Graves and Howell Way Woltz and Vernice Chaitan Woltz, a husband-and-wife business team from Advance, in the same tax conspiracy. Raleigh lawyer Robert S. Wellons and Coyt Murray of Tega Cay, S.C., are not listed in the indictment but were charged in connection with the scheme, prosecutors said.

"Sometimes persons involved in elaborate criminal financial schemes believe they can avoid federal law enforcement by moving their operations offshore," U.S. Attorney Gretchen Shappert, who prosecutes crimes in Western North Carolina, said in a statement. "However, this is not true."

Currin, a protege of former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, is well-known in conservative Republican politics in North Carolina. His connections were on display in his law office, which has featured photographs of Currin with such luminaries as Helms, former President Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Helms nominated Currin, who had worked for him as an aide in Washington, to be U.S. attorney for the Eastern District. Currin held that position from 1981 to 1987. Helms then nominated Currin's wife, Margaret, to succeed him.

Helms also nominated Currin to be a federal judge -- although he was never confirmed. Currin went on to serve as a state Superior Court judge but failed to win election to the N.C. Supreme Court.

More recently, Currin was active in Republican politics. He was elected state GOP chairman in 1996 as a self-described reform candidate. Currin supporters had cited the tax problems of his two immediate predecessors as one reason there needed to be a change at GOP headquarters.

He lost a re-election bid to former U.S. Rep. Bill Cobey in 1999. Critics at the time charged that Currin was too doctrinaire on such questions as abortion and was unwilling to open the party to people with other views.

Currin closed his Raleigh law office within the past couple of months.

The news surprised those who knew Currin from law and politics.

"You're kidding me?" said state Republican Party chairman Ferrell Blount. "You mean, Sam Currin, who was party chairman? I'm speechless, and I'm not speechless much."

Initial appearances

Currin and Graves had their initial appearances Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Raleigh. Currin's wife, a former dean of Campbell University's law school, sat in the front row. Neither of the Currins would talk after court.

Currin's attorney, Mark Calloway, a former U.S. attorney in Charlotte, didn't respond to a request for comment.

Currin and Graves were each released on a $100,000 unsecured bond.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ed Ryan said in court that Currin planned to turn himself in to "in-patient treatment with regard to his medical issues today." No further explanation was given, and Ryan did not answer questions.

The indictment

The indictment details two situations that led to the charges against Currin: A scheme to use foreign trusts to help wealthy U.S. citizens evade federal income tax and his response to a grand jury subpoena in a securities fraud investigation.

In support of the foreign trust scheme, the indictment says, Howell Woltz told a potential client in 2002 that Currin "has done quite a bit of homework on foreign structures" and "reviewed our strategies and structures with the eye of a former prosecutor."

The indictment says that in 2004, Currin, Graves and Howell Woltz met with potential clients -- including two undercover IRS agents -- to discuss using offshore trusts to avoid paying federal taxes. The indictment says Graves told the undercover agents that they could avoid paying $250,000 in federal taxes on a $10 million payment for Internet gaming rights.

The IRS agents said they were told that they could do so by running the sale through two foreign trusts, the indictment says.

That same year, Currin and the others attended a conference in the Bahamas about "foreign trust structures and asset protection vehicles," the indictment says.

In 2005, Currin and Wellons were subpoenaed by a grand jury to turn over documents related to a client's business merger in connection with a federal securities fraud investigation. Prosecutors say Currin didn't turn over any records in response to a subpoena, even though he had three documents and gave two of them to Wellons.

Currin testified before the grand jury that he had never had any documents, according to the indictment. (Wellons had testified earlier that day that Currin had given him the documents after they were subpoenaed.) After further questioning, Currin changed his testimony, admitting he had given one document to Wellons, the indictment says.

After their grand jury testimony, Currin questioned Wellons, who said he testified that Currin gave him the documents.

"In response, Currin expressed anger at Wellons for deviating from the story on which they had agreed," the indictment says. "Currin then proposed another false story that Currin and Wellons could provide to the government in an effort to conceal their prior wrongdoings."

(News researcher Lamara Williams-Hackett contributed to this report.)