Daniel Resnick, accuse of money laundering

A Sullivan County businessman has been accused of money laundering for allegedly accepting more than $1.1 million from undercover law enforcement officers and later returning the funds minus a 20% fee.

A criminal complaint against Daniel Resnick, of Glen Wild, was unsealed on Dec. 16 in U.S. District Court, White Plains.

“This is not the first time,” Resnick said in a recorded conversation with a confidential source working with the FBI, as he allegedly explained how he could launder money through one of his companies. “I put it through my books as returned merchandise, and it is done. It is very simple.”

Patrick A. Mullin, Resnick’s Manhattan attorney, said “My client denies the allegations that have been brought against him.”

The feds claim that a confidential source had discussed money laundering with Resnick.

The source, the government disclosed in the criminal complaint, is awaiting sentencing for 18 felonies, including bank fraud, bankruptcy fraud and bribery. He was working with law enforcement, “in the hopes of receiving leniency at sentencing.”

In July 2019, the FBI gave the source a $20,000 check to give to Resnick to launder. They met at Resnick Supermarket Equipment Corp. in Mountain Dale, according to the complaint, and Resnick accepted the check and agreed to return $18,000.

Resnick returned the $18,000 at an August 2019 meeting on a boat offshore of downtown Manhattan, the government claims. The source introduced a new player at that meeting, an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a stock scammer.

The undercover agent described a pump-and-dump scheme in which a stock was being falsely promoted to build up the share price and then sold for a windfall profit. The stock promoter needed cash, the complaint states, “to move monies around to take care of the people that are helping us.”

“I have one company that I’ve had for years and years and years that I use,” Resnick allegedly replied. “Never done a tax return on it. It just sits there, um, monies go in, monies go out.”

The agent gave Resnick a $50,000 check to launder, according to the complaint.

More checks followed from September 2019 to November 2020, ranging from $100,000 to $350,000 and involving two more undercover law enforcement officers.

Resnick allegedly returned the money, minus his 20% fee, by checks written on a company bank account, wire transfers or cash.

Some of the alleged laundered checks did not clear the bank account.

On Nov. 5, 2020, the source met with Resnick in midtown Manhattan and handed him a $350,000 bank check, according to the complaint. Resnick handed back $350,000 cash in a cereal box. This time, the government claims, he did not take his customary 20% fee because he owed money on the bounced checks.

Resnick was arrested on Dec. 16 and held for an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew E. Krause. He was released from custody on posting a $500,000 bond.

Assistant federal prosecutor Derek Wikstrom is handling the government’s case.