It's been almost two years since federal and local authorities raided the Trading Post in June 2006, and the store still sits quiet, its doors and windows shuttered.
It's been almost two years since federal and local authorities raided the Trading Post in June 2006, and the store still sits quiet, its doors and windows shuttered.
But the East End pawnshop was once a hive of illegal activity, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen goods moving through it.
Court documents unsealed last week, including an affidavit by an Internal Revenue Service criminal investigator, offer a window into how Toney Lee Corey turned his pawnshop into a cash cow by fielding a team of thieves who stole everything from electronics and power tools to sunglasses and bottles of dietary supplements.
In return, Corey paid them pennies on the dollar for the loot, provided it was new and still in its original packaging.
Earlier this year, Corey pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of money laundering. He admitted that he earned roughly $350,000 between May 2004 and June 2006 by selling stolen goods on the eBay Web site.
According to IRS Special Agent Anthony Hanke's affidavit, Charleston police arrested at least six people on various theft and theft-related charges in the weeks leading up to the raid. Each of them became "cooperating individuals," or CIs.
Some of them had ongoing business relationships with Corey that lasted months or years, essentially becoming pawnshop employees whose job it was to go out and steal.
In addition to traditional pawnshop merchandise - computers, DVD players, TVs and camcorders - Corey's minions supplied him with a variety of more unorthodox wares: blood pressure monitors, electric toothbrushes, printer ink cartridges and bottles of liquor and perfume.
CI#1, as he's referred to in the affidavit, told law enforcement that he was a drug user who heard from other shoplifters that he could "take almost anything" to Corey and "get money out of it."
Corey would pay cash for items that other pawnshops refused to buy, CI#1 said.
"After awhile, if someone takes in ten iPods or three drills, it's going to look suspicious," he said.
Sometimes, Corey requested specific items, CI#1 recalled.
"If you [are] going out working today, I could use some iPods," Corey would say, according to CI#1.
Between January 2005 and April 2006, Corey paid CI#1 almost $48,000 for more than 1,000 separate items with an estimated retail value of more than $100,000, Hanke wrote.
CI#2, a convicted felon and drug user, said he sometimes helped Corey prepare outgoing packages at the pawnshop.
It's been almost two years since federal and local authorities raided the Trading Post in June 2006, and the store still sits quiet, its doors and windows shuttered.
But the East End pawnshop was once a hive of illegal activity, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen goods moving through it.
Court documents unsealed last week, including an affidavit by an Internal Revenue Service criminal investigator, offer a window into how Toney Lee Corey turned his pawnshop into a cash cow by fielding a team of thieves who stole everything from electronics and power tools to sunglasses and bottles of dietary supplements.
In return, Corey paid them pennies on the dollar for the loot, provided it was new and still in its original packaging.
Earlier this year, Corey pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of money laundering. He admitted that he earned roughly $350,000 between May 2004 and June 2006 by selling stolen goods on the eBay Web site.
According to IRS Special Agent Anthony Hanke's affidavit, Charleston police arrested at least six people on various theft and theft-related charges in the weeks leading up to the raid. Each of them became "cooperating individuals," or CIs.
Some of them had ongoing business relationships with Corey that lasted months or years, essentially becoming pawnshop employees whose job it was to go out and steal.
In addition to traditional pawnshop merchandise - computers, DVD players, TVs and camcorders - Corey's minions supplied him with a variety of more unorthodox wares: blood pressure monitors, electric toothbrushes, printer ink cartridges and bottles of liquor and perfume.
CI#1, as he's referred to in the affidavit, told law enforcement that he was a drug user who heard from other shoplifters that he could "take almost anything" to Corey and "get money out of it."
Corey would pay cash for items that other pawnshops refused to buy, CI#1 said.
"After awhile, if someone takes in ten iPods or three drills, it's going to look suspicious," he said.
Sometimes, Corey requested specific items, CI#1 recalled.
"If you [are] going out working today, I could use some iPods," Corey would say, according to CI#1.
Between January 2005 and April 2006, Corey paid CI#1 almost $48,000 for more than 1,000 separate items with an estimated retail value of more than $100,000, Hanke wrote.
CI#2, a convicted felon and drug user, said he sometimes helped Corey prepare outgoing packages at the pawnshop.
"A lot of shipping goes out of there," CI#2 said.
He admitted selling Corey about 350 bottles of dietary supplements he had stolen from Rite-Aid, Kroger and CVS in the weeks just prior to his May 25, 2006, arrest.
Over a 14-month period in 2005 and 2006, Corey paid CI#2 $18,477 - or a monthly average of $1,319 - for more than 1,000 items with an estimated value of at least $100,000.
When a third CI was asked if other pawn shops would accept brand new items in their original packaging, he answered: "Probably not, but I ain't going to try it."
A fourth CI said that Corey once gave her and another person a printout of a map that showed the locations of various GNC Nutrition stores that sold dietary supplements he wanted.
She said Corey didn't ask her if the merchandise was stolen, but he must have known.
"He knows the [stuff's] stolen," she said. "Who's got 10 bottles of Hydroxycut [diet pills] lying around?"
CI#6, a crack cocaine user arrested after Charleston police saw him shoplifting designer sunglasses (which he would sell to Corey for $15 or $20 a pair), said he had seen Corey photographing items so that he could sell them on eBay. Corey gave him lists of things to steal, he said.
Another CI said that he and CI#1 had gone to Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky to steal things to sell to Corey.
According to the Web site's records, Corey sold more than 25,000 items through his "tradingpost987" eBay account between May 2004 and May 2006, with proceeds totaling $589,000, Hanke wrote.
Corey used the money to buy up property on the East End, prosecutors said when they moved to seize seven properties in December.
In an agreement entered on Jan. 16, Corey agreed to forfeit more than $2,800 seized in his bank account in October 2006 and to pay $77,000 within 10 days. The property at 600 Ruffner Ave. was to be sold, and the proceeds will be put toward his court-ordered restitution, the order states.
In exchange, prosecutors released the six other properties from forfeiture.
Corey faces up to 20 years in prison when sentenced by U.S. District Judge David A. Faber on July 28.
To contact staff writer Andrew Clevenger, use e-mail or call 348-1723.
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