Ex-North Carolina Rep. Ballance indicted for mail fraud, money laundering

Jet, Sept 20, 2004

Former Rep. Frank Ballance has been indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of mail fraud and money laundering.

The charge is related to an investigation of a charitable organization created by the former congressman. Earlier this year, Ballance, 62, resigned from Congress due to illness (JET, June 28). His son, Garey Ballance, was also indicted on a misdemeanor charge of failing to file a federal income tax return.

In the indictment, Frank Ballance is charged with one lone count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, mail fraud of money and money laundering--a felony that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Garey, 34, a state District Court judge, is charged with not filing a tax return in 2000, a misdemeanor.

The ex-congressman said he understood the charges and conditions of his release during the hearing before federal Magistrate Judge James Dever. Ballance was released with no bond. "I've acknowledged in the past that I made some mistakes," he said outside the courthouse. "We will get beyond this case and see where we go from there."

Federal and state investigators had been probing the activities of the John A. Hyman Memorial Foundation since last year, when it was the subject of a state audit.