U.S. prosecutors are increasingly reaching beyond the border in probes of bribery, tax-evasion, the rigging of financial benchmarks, even corruption within global soccer. But a dentist accused of money laundering could make such investigations harder to execute.

Robert Bandfield, 71, a U.S. citizen who practiced dentistry in Canada decades ago, is accused of masterminding a $250 million financial fraud in Belize that allegedly sold sham companies to investors from the U.S. and elsewhere to facilitate illegal trading, tax evasion and money laundering. Bandfield denies the claims and says the U.S. should be barred from offering evidence gathered in what he claims was an illegal search of his office in the Central American country.

With his trial set to begin May 31 in Brooklyn, New York, Bandfield argues U.S. agents orchestrated a raid in which Belize police indiscriminately seized records. That would violate the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, he said. If he’s successful, his case could create complications in a growing number of cross-border investigations, including the expanding corruption probe into FIFA, soccer’s governing body, and a bribery probe into Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA.

A ruling for Bandfield may force U.S. investigators to reconsider how they work with police overseas so prosecutors aren’t handcuffed at future trials, said Matthew L. Schwartz, a defense lawyer at Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP.

‘Deputize Them’

"You don’t get to use foreign officials to evade requirements of the U.S. Constitution," he said. "This becomes a bigger issue the more crime becomes international and authorities coordinate across borders.”

How a dentist wound up at the center of an alleged tax evasion and laundering scheme is a curious subtext to a recent U.S. crackdown on so-called incorporators, who allegedly help investors stash money in offshore business structures to avoid taxes or remain anonymous. Bandfield, who has been in jail since his arrest, declined to comment through his lawyer. Family members didn’t reply to messages.

Bandfield graduated from dental school in Oregon in 1969 and obtained a license in British Columbia that same year, officials there said. Ward Edwards, a former colleague, said Bandfield framed his U.S. draft notice in his office and was “proud that he got out of the U.S at the time.” Amid the Vietnam War, Bandfield became eligible for the draft in 1969 after being on educational deferral for four years, according to records from the National Archives. It is unclear if he received an order to report.

Property Investor

While in Canada, Bandfield dabbled in real-estate investments, said Edwards, who joined his dental practice in 1974. Bandfield sought other physicians to participate in a government program that allowed investors in apartments to write off income. The investment soured when the rental market went soft, said Edwards, who wasn’t an investor.

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