Ex-credit counselor gets jail term

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

The former head of a nonprofit agency that helped people with credit problems was sentenced yesterday to a year in prison for helping several men from Mexico launder the proceeds from a heroin ring.

Federal Judge Susan Mollway gave Michael Haxton credit for the nine months he spent in custody while waiting to be sentenced on a charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering. And Mollway said she will allow Haxton to serve the additional three months in three-day installments on weekends beginning June 13.

Haxton had pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge in October 2001.

Federal prosecutors said Haxton and his wife, Yvonne Haxton, who were operating Hawai'i Credit Counseling, had asked clients to use large-denomination bills when making payments.

The Haxtons would then swap mostly $100 bills to drug-ring members for an equal amount in $20, $10 and $5 bills, prosecutors said, and receive heroin. The money exchange made it much easier for drug ring members to take the cash to the Mainland to buy heroin to resupply their operation in Hawai'i, prosecutors said.

David Bettencourt, Haxton's lawyer, asked Mollway to hand down a sentence that was no longer than the one-year given Yvonne Haxton on April 2. She had also pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Thomas recommended a two-year prison term for Michael Haxton, saying his "post offense rehabilitation" efforts did not equal those of his wife.