KNOXVILLE - A nationally known Knoxville fashion designer today formally confessed his role in a $20 million "butter and eggs" numbers racket.
Marcus Hall, owner of the raw-denim jeans firm Marc Nelson Denim on Depot Avenue, entered guilty pleas in U.S. District Court today before U.S. District Judge Pamela Reeves to charges of owning an illegal gambling operation and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He will remain free pending sentencing.
Hall had secretly struck a deal to cooperate with the IRS Criminal Investigation Division in its probe of the gambling operation following a raid in June of both his denim business and his real estate firm, Growing Properties Inc., as well as businesses in a Lonsdale shopping mall complex. The News Sentinel reported the revelations contained in the in early November after Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kolman filed paperwork on it in federal court.
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