SEATTLE
Businessman Steven Asir Thomas owned various nightclubs in the Seattle area and wanted to open a new one called “Ice Nightclub” to be a cover for laundering drug money, according to authorities.
That’s what the 40-year-old businessman told a cop and an undercover agent, officials said.
Officials said Thomas claimed that the club would generate cash for additional drug purchases, and in October 2013, he worked to set up a drug deal trading methamphetamine for assault rifles.
Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour sentenced Thomas to 12 years in prison, adding that the sentence was driven by the amount of drugs involved and Thomas’ intent to have an attorney assaulted because of a business dispute involving his nightclub.
“Individuals who create businesses that launder profits for drug trafficking organizations should understand that they will actually be the ones paying the price when they forfeit their freedom and the proceeds of their criminal acts,” said Brad Bench, Special Agent in Charge of ICE Homeland Security Investigations in Seattle. “The sentencing of this defendant sends a clear message that law enforcement will not tolerate the actions of those who use the cover of legitimate business to conceal cash obtained from drug trafficking and associated acts of violence in order to bring dangerous narcotics into our communities.”
To his supporters, Thomas is a “good man,” a businessman who was duped by an informant with a vendetta. Raised by missionary parents in Bellevue, Thomas graduated from the University of Washington before enrolling in the Army Re
serves, according to a story in the Seattle Pi.com
“Mr. Thomas was trying hard to start and operate a legitimate nightclub, not a ‘front’ for illegal activities,” defense attorney Scott Engelhard said in court papers, according to Seattle Pi.com.
“Mr. Thomas was a legitimate 
business person who despite his good faith efforts ran into financial difficulties with his new club and gave into the temptation to illegally finance his project.”
On three other occasions, authorities said law enforcement seized drugs that were either delivered or ordered by Thomas.
In October 2013, Thomas picked up a pound of methamphetamine from a source and then “sold” it to an undercover agent in Portland, Oregon. About a week later, another two pound load of methamphetamine was seized on a bus headed to Portland – the courier was bringing it to Thomas, officials said.
Finally, in March 2014, officials said Thomas arranged another one pound sale in Portland of highly pure methamphetamine to an undercover agent.
Thomas used bank accounts set up in the name of Ice Nightclub to launder money he believed to be the proceeds of drug dealing. Some of the money was provided to Thomas by undercover agents acting as drug dealers in order to ferret out the nature and extent of Thomas’ wrongdoing.
The plan that Thomas concocted was for drug dealers to give him cash disguised as an investment in the club. Then Thomas would write a check from Ice Nightclub accounts to an entity connected to the drug dealers to make it appear that the Ice Nightclub was paying for services rendered.
Thomas collected a fee from the “drug dealers” for his assistance in disguising the criminal source of the funds.
On March 27, 2014, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Thomas’ residence.
They found a loaded Glock 9 mm Model 19 firearm next to his bed. Also in the residence was evidence of drug dealing including cocaine, 14 cell phones, scales, currency bands and evidence of a previous marijuana grow.
Thomas is prohibited from possessing guns due to a felony drug conviction in 2006 in Arkansas.