Dog sniffs out Mass. man fleeing with $1.3M in cash

February 12, 2008 11:50 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

A dog that can sniff out money aided in the arrest of a Massachusetts man who was poised to fly from Florida to Venezuela with $1.3 million in stolen cash, federal authorities said.

Allen Seymour of Oxford was arrested Friday night on federal charges shortly after Zeek, a dog used by officers from US Customs and Border Protection, detected the cash in the baggage compartments of a private aircraft at the Opa Locka Airport near Miami, according to a sworn statement filed yesterday by an FBI agent in US District Court in Worcester.

Seymour illegally obtained the cash through a complicated series of transactions from an Oxford lawyer who had received it from a client to buy a commercial property in Pennsylvania, the agent, Albert D. Lamoreaux, said in the affidavit.

The lawyer, who was identified in the affidavit only as "R.D.," was under investigation himself by federal and state authorities for allegedly misappropriating $1.99 million from the client.

"R.D." told agents that he had loaned the money to Seymour so he could briefly use it to obtain bank financing for a business deal, said the affidavit, which did not give specifics. Seymour then allegedly took the money and tried to flee to Venezuela with his wife, five children, and the family dog.

Seymour is being held in Miami on federal charges filed in both Florida and Massachusetts, including wire fraud, interstate transportation of stolen property, attempting to evade currency reporting requirements, and attempting to hide more than $10,000 in luggage and to transport it outside the United States, said Christina DiIorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan.

Seymour is to appear at a detention hearing in federal court in Miami Thursday, she said. He is to appear in federal court in Massachusetts at a later date.