Bowling Green attorney pleads guilty to money laundering

BOWLING GREEN, Ky.- A Bowling Green attorney entered a guilty plea to money laundering on Thursday, according to United States Attorney Russell Coleman.

H. Harris Pepper, Jr. was charged in a federal information Feb. 14 in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Kentucky with one count of money laundering conspiracy.

His co-conspirator is listed in federal court records as “D.B.”

D.B. is identified in other federal records as Douglas Booth who pleaded guilty last year to all of the charges against him in an 11-count federal indictment issued in 2018.

Booth operated a sports wagering business and pleaded guilty to transmission of wagering information between Kentucky and Costa Rica. He also pleaded guilty to five counts of money laundering and five counts of failure to file federal income tax returns. Booth’s 2018 indictment reads that he was a part owner of Hard Six, LLC  and that in 2008 he purchased that ownership with $125,000 in cash with an unnamed co-conspirator who knew the invested proceeds were from an unlawful activity.

This transaction and others in Booth’s court records match information contained in Pepper’s charging document.

Pepper helped Booth buy ownership in three companies in which portions of Booth’s proceeds were monies gained through unlawful activity and concealing Booth’s investments in those transactions.

According to the plea agreement, the United States will seek a sentence of imprisonment which should not exceed 12 months and one day.

Sentencing is scheduled at 10 a.m. June 11 in Louisville.