According to court documents, in September 2017, the Springfield Police Department began an investigation after being contacted by United Parcel Service (UPS) regarding several packages Manzer shipped to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma that had a strong marijuana odor. UPS later confirmed that, in October 2017, Manzer sent several additional packages next day air to Oklahoma City also believed to contain marijuana. During the same time period, several packages containing numerous stacks of cash bound in $1,000 increments were sent to Manzer's home address in Springfield.

In November 2017, Springfield Police obtained a search warrant for all packages sent or received by Manzer via UPS. Shortly thereafter, an officer was conducting surveillance at a UPS store in Springfield when he saw Manzer arrive in a pickup truck with "Curran's Taxidermy" written on the side. The officer observed Manzer bringing six packages into the store, which he dropped off for next day shipment to Oklahoma. A Springfield Police canine unit responded to the scene and the canine alerted to the packages.

The Springfield Police officer executed a search warrant on the packages and located six large Styrofoam rocks containing 143 pounds of marijuana.

Manzer faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $1 million fine and a three-year term of supervised release. He will be sentenced on February 26, 2019 before U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken.

As part of the plea agreement, Manzer agrees to forfeit any criminally-derived proceeds and property used to facilitate his crimes identified by the government prior to sentencing.

Q:  When can I smoke/use recreational marijuana?

A:   As of July 1, 2015, Oregonians are allowed to grow up to four plants on their property, possess up to eight ounces of usable marijuana in their homes and up to one ounce on their person. Recreational marijuana cannot be sold or smoked in public. For more information go to: www.whatslegaloregon.com.

 

Q:  Where and when can I buy marijuana?

A:   You may purchase marijuana items at an OLCC licensed retail location. 

Q:  How much marijuana can I have?

A:  The personal possession limits are:

• One ounce of usable marijuana in a public place;
• Eight ounces of usable marijuana;
• 16 ounces of a cannabinoid product in solid form;
• 72 ounces of a cannabinoid product in liquid form;
• Five grams of cannabinoid extracts or concentrates, whether sold alone or contained in an inhalant delivery system;
• Four marijuana plants; and
• Ten marijuana seeds. . .

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

72 ounces of cannabinoid product in liquid form; 

16 ounces of cannabinoid product in solid form; 

10 marijuana seeds; 

8 ounces of usable marijuana; 

5 grams of cannabinoid extract; 

4 marijuana plants, and 

an ounce of usable marijuana in a styrofoam rock under a partridge in a pear tree. 

Although there are many types of gift card scams, the most common are: 

Grandparent Scam - The scammer impersonates a grandchild of the victim who claims to be in some sort of trouble, typically related to a car accident or arrest, and in need of money to pay for bail or a lawyer. Victims report that the scheme was believable because the scammers knew the names and other information about their grandchild and sounded like their grandchild. Click here to read more about the Grandparent Scam, including a PSA on how to avoid being duped.

IRS Scam - The scammer impersonates someone from the IRS attempting to collect taxes allegedly owed. The scammer usually threatens arrest that day if the debt is not paid immediately via gift cards. Again, the victims report that the scheme is believable because the scammers may give the name and badge number of a real IRS agent whose identity can be verified online, the scammers may know detailed information about the victim's tax history, or the scammers may send the victim an email that appears to be from an IRS domain.

Tech Support Scam - The scammer impersonates a tech support employee claiming to work for the manufacturer of the victim's computer. The scammer claims there is a virus and requests remote access to the victim's computer. After the scammer "fixes" a non-existent problem, he or she demands payment for the services and refuses to unlock the computer until the victim pays.

With all of these scams, the scam artists frequently direct the victims to purchase thousands of dollars in gift cards, provide the scammers with the numbers on the back of the cards, and then destroy them, which prevents the consumers from subsequently asking the retailer to freeze the cards. Scammers also often train their victims to give false information to retail clerks who may question a large gift card purchase. The scammer then uses the gift cards almost immediately - often to purchase third-party gift cards such as iTunes, Steam, or Google Play cards. This makes it very unlikely that a victim will be able to get any money back. Once a consumer falls victim to the scheme, the scammer often continues to call the victim demanding more money in gift cards, resulting in large losses to consumers. For example, one New York resident reported losing $36,000 as the result of a grandparent scam. 

' ' '

• You cannot pay bail, a lawyer, the IRS, or tech support using retail gift cards. If someone demands to be paid with a gift card, it's a scam.
• Never give gift card numbers on the back of gift cards to someone you don't know.
• Taxpayers should remember the IRS does not initiate contact with a consumer over a tax debt by phone, but through official mail. A big red flag for these scams are angry, threatening calls from people who say they are the IRS, urging immediate payment. 
• Develop a secret code or "password" with family members that can be used to verify the identity of family members over the phone. You can also ask a question that only the real family member would know the answer to, such as "what was the name of your first pet?"  
• In general, it's a good idea to ignore phone calls if you don't recognize the number. If it's someone you know, they will leave a voicemail or send you a text.  
• If a retail clerk warns you that you may be the victim of a gift card scam, heed the advice and call your loved one or law enforcement officials.

11. By virtue of her position at BOA, ACE could process and approve payments of less than $50,000 from a BOA marketing budget. As ACE well knew, payments above $50,000 required further scrutiny and approval. ACE purposefully exploited this lack of scrutiny to embezzle funds belonging to BOA. 

12. Over the course of the scheme, ACE fraudulently caused BOA to pay approximately $2.7 million in purported donations, in approximately 75 different transactions each under $50,000, to various non-profit organizations in the Boston and Atlanta area. ACE was not authorized to make these payments and in fact did not have the authority to make charitable donations or sponsorships on behalf of BOA. ACE attempted to conceal the fraud by instructing others within BOA to exclude the fraudulent transfers from regular accounting reports to her supervisor. 

13. After causing BOA to make the payments to the various non-profit organizations, ACE and J.ACE caused the non-profits to return a substantial portion of the necessary to ensure additional funding from BOA. At various times, J.ACE pressured the recipients of the BOA funds to give him a higher percentage of the funds by using intimidation and threats of public humiliation. 

14. As a further means, to avoid detection, ACE caused a significant portion of the funds the non-profits paid back to ACE to be deposited into a BOA account in the name of a family relative who resided in California ("the Relative's Account"). For the most part, each of the cash deposits into the Relative's Account were below $10,000 and were calculated to avoid reporting requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act for cash deposits over $10,000.