The suspect identified last week in a $56.89 million money-laundering scheme is a physician banned from treating patients and is in trouble over what officials say is a debris-strewn home in a multimillion-dollar Phoenix neighborhood.
Dr. Bruce Dennis Love and two of his business partners, Rosa A. Contreras, 39, and Maria L. Becerra, 38, face charges of money laundering, fraud and other crimes that police say catered to coyotes smuggling illegal workers into Arizona.
Love also has other troubles. The Arizona Board of Medical Examiners (now Arizona Medical Board) in 1999 described Love as having a "mental impairment," and banned him from direct contact with patients and prescribing medications.
His license was not lifted, but the ban is still in effect.
More details were not immediately available.
Love is also in hot water with the Phoenix Neighborhood Services Department, which investigates and enforces code violations.
In April, the department ordered Love to make an estimated $45,000 in repairs to his vacant home and property near 44th Street and Mockingbird Lane.
Love, out of jail on a $20,000 cash bond in the money-laundering case, did not return phone calls.
Phoenix officials notified Love of gaps in a block fence in his backyard and an excavation site they deemed unsafe. Officials also claimed Love's yard was strewn with garbage, hazardous waste, broken furniture and other debris. He was given until May 8 to correct the problems.
The front yard is surrounded by a chain-link fence. But the backyard, lined with 2-foot-deep trenches, is easily accessible. A rubberized shed has collapsed in the back, and a child's red plastic wagon is overturned by the patio.
Love's neighbors in the exclusive mountain-studded community would not divulge their names. But they said Love's home is dangerous and are angry that the city has not forced him to comply with repair deadlines.
Neighborhood Services officials did not return phone calls, but the department's Web site said Love's case "is in research."
Meanwhile, Love, Contreras and Becerra are scheduled to be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in Maricopa County Superior Court. Love faces 88 counts of money-laundering, conspiracy and other charges.
The Arizona Financial Crimes Task Force, led by Phoenix police, unraveled the suspected scheme during an investigation of the suspects' Western Union operations.
Sherry Johnson, a Western Union spokeswoman in Denver, said the company cooperated in the investigation, and severed its relationship with Love in March 2006.
Coyotes are suspected of telling families awaiting relatives to wire money for their passage to the suspects' Western Union locations.
Police say the high volume of transactions over four years increased Love's commissions, turning the scheme into a multimillion-dollar operation.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0129moneylaunder0129.html
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