Georgia Lawyer Sentenced For Obstruction: U.S. Attorney

ATLANTA, GA — A Georgia attorney has been sentenced for obstruction, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice. Natasha Simone White "blatantly disobeyed warnings" from the federal government not to sell a house she upgraded with money from drugs, the release says.

According to the release from U.S. Attorney Byung Pak, White didn't sell drugs, but "lined her pockets with the excessive profits gained from drug trafficking, using the funds to build her dream house in California."

White, an attorney admitted to the State Bar of Georgia and a California real estate broker, disobeyed federal orders not to sell the California house, making $1 million off the sale, and attempted to leave town, the release says.

"As an attorney herself, White should have known better than to obstruct the federal government in its pursuit of justice," Pak said in the release.

According to Pak, alongside charges and other information in court, federal agents started investigating a drug trafficking and money laundering organization in the Atlanta area. They identified White as possibly being involved, as she was romantically attached to one of the targets of the investigation.

She received hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds, the release says, which she used to buy a Los Angeles house for $625,000. She then spent another $600,000 to improve and renovate the house, the release says.

Federal agents told White the house was subject to federal forfeiture due to the source of the money, and she agreed not to sell it. However, agents later found out that she had listed the price on various websites, asking $1.6 million.

In November 2016, White sold the house for $1.55 million, the release says, to a person who didn't know it was subject to forfeiture. She used that money to buy a Union City house, fund bank accounts and pay off hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, the release says.

White pleaded guilty to obstruction on July 22, 2019. She was sentenced to six months in prison with two years of probation, the first of which is under house arrest. The release says she was ordered to pay a personal forfeiture of $997,196, to forfeit the Union City property and to pay back about $59,000 in funds, which were seized from her bank accounts.