Justia White Collar Crime Opinion Summaries

Defendants Esquenazi and Rodriquez appealed their convictions and sentences for conspiracy; violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), 15 U.S.C. 78dd-2; and money-laundering. The court concluded that the district court did not err in its jury instructions regarding the definition of "instrumentality" under the FCPA; the evidence was sufficient to show Teleco was controlled by the Haitian government and performed a function Haiti treated as its own, namely, nationalized telecommunication services; the FCPA was not vague as applied to Esquenazi's acts; defendants possessed the requisite knowledge; the district court did not err in refusing to dismiss the money-laundering counts of the indictment or in allowing the jury to decide these counts; and defendants' various sentencing challenges were rejected. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "United States v. Esquenazi" on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of theft by misapplication of property and securities fraud. Defendant appealed, contending that the court's jury instructions impermissibly shifted the burden of proof onto him to prove his innocence. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the burden of proof was not improperly shifted onto Defendant to prove his innocence where (1) there was no obvious error in the instructions the trial court gave because, as a whole, the instructions correctly stated the law; and (2) the court correctly stated the State's burden of proof and Defendant's presumption of innocence several times during the jury selection, at the beginning of the trial, in its final instructions, and in its written instructions sent to the jury room. View "State v. Philbrook" on Justia Law

Ogletree ran a tax preparation service. Robtrel and Larryl provided Ogletree with birth dates and social security numbers of individuals unlikely to file tax returns; Ogletree filed false returns using that information and her Electronic Filers Identification Number. They also generated false W2 statements to support the claims. In 2006 Ogletree filed 200 fraudulent returns, seeking refunds of $834,548. The actual loss to the IRS was $652,730.In 2007, Robtrel established a tax business and obtained EFINs for new tax preparation entities. Ogletree claims she withdrew from the conspiracy and did not file fraudulent tax returns in 2007 or later. Robtrel and Larryl continued the scheme into 2008, when they were caught. Charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, 18 U.S.C. 286, and presenting a false claim against the IRS, 18 U.S.C. 287 and 2, Robtrel and Larryl pleaded guilty, but Ogletree went to trial. Her attorney did not present any witnesses, but argued that the government did not establish that Ogletree had joined the conspiracy or knowingly filed false returns, noting that the witnesses all identified Robtrel and Larryl and that no one had identified Ogletree. She was convicted and sentenced to 51 months imprisonment, the low end of the sentencing range. The Seventh Circuit affirmed her sentence, rejecting challenges to the loss calculation, to a finding that she participated in the tax fraud scheme in 2007, and that the district court did not adequately consider the section 3553 sentencing factors. View "United States v. Williams-Ogletree" on Justia Law

Plaintiff initiated litigation to recover wrongfully diverted and concealed proceeds of a loan agreement, asserting that Defendants conspired to avoid repayment by denying their ownership and control over entities used to conceal converted funds. Before the conclusion of discovery in New York, federal authorities arrested Defendants, charging them with tax evasion and alleging a conspiracy to commit fraud on the New York court by forging documents and suborning perjury. A jury convicted Defendants of tax evasion, and the district court concluded that Defendants had perpetrated fraud on Supreme Court in New York. After Defendants’ sentencing, Plaintiff filed a motion to strike Defendants’ pleadings and for a default judgment. Supreme Court determined that Defendants had perpetrated a fraud on the court and granted the motion. The Appellate Division affirmed. The Court of Appeals affirmed in part, holding (1) where a court finds, by clear and convincing evidence, conduct that constitutes fraud on the court, the court may impose sanctions including striking pleadings and entering default judgment against the offending parties; and (2) with one exception, the record supported such sanctions against Defendants. View "CDR Creances S.A.S. v. Cohen" on Justia Law

A grand jury charged Defendants, the president and CEO of a leading materials testing company and the company’s vice-president, with engaging in a pattern of criminal activity while intentionally conducting and participating in the affairs of a criminal enterprise. The indictment alleged that Defendants committed or allowed certain of the company’s employees to engage in illegal acts involving the falsification of test results, improper inspections of construction projects, and double-billing of clients. After a jury trial, both defendants were convicted of enterprise corruption and several non-enterprise corruption offenses. The Appellate Division modified by vacating the enterprise corruption convictions on the basis that the convictions lacked sufficient proof and were against the weight of the evidence. Both parties appealed. The Court of Appeals affirmed as modified, holding that the Appellate Division did not apply the proper legal standards when it reviewed the sufficiency of the evidence supporting Defendants’ convictions for enterprise corruption and that the People’s evidence was legally sufficient to support the enterprise corruption convictions. Remanded. View "People v. Kancharla" on Justia Law

Defendant opened a number of fraudulent accounts in her daughter’s name beginning when her daughter was fourteen years old, resulting in her daughter’s credit rating being ruined. Defendant pled guilty to eight counts of identity theft, was sentenced to an effective five-year prison term, and was ordered to pay restitution to six financial institutions and to her daughter. The Supreme Court affirmed the circuit court’s sentencing order, holding that the circuit court did not err by (1) sentencing Defendant to prison instead of placing her on probation or home confinement; and (2) ordering her to pay $10,000 in restitution to her daughter. View "State v. Rebecca F." on Justia Law

Defendant pled guilty to three counts arising from his fraudulent activity in connection with a client's initial public offering. Defendant sought habeas relief, contending that, in light of the Supreme Court's intervening decision in Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders, the conduct for which he was convicted is no longer criminal. The court found Janus inapplicable outside the context of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act, 15 U.S.C. 78j(b), implied private right of action. Therefore, Janus does not affect defendant's criminal convictions. Because defendant's convictions are proper under current law, the court concluded that his section 2241 petition necessarily failed. Accordingly, the court affirmed the dismissal of his petition. View "Prousalis, Jr. v. Moore" on Justia Law

In the late 1990s, people who had taken the prescription diet-drug combination Fen-Phen began suing Wyeth, claiming that the drugs caused valvular heart disease. A 2000 settlement included creation of the Fen-Phen Settlement Trust to compensate class members who had sustained heart damage. Claims required medical evidence. Attorneys who represented certain claimants retained Tai, a board-certified Level 2-qualified cardiologist, to read tests and prepare reports. Tai read 12,000 tests and asserted that he was owed $2 million dollars for his services. Tai later acknowledged that in about 10% of the cases, he dictated reports consistent with the technicians’ reports despite knowing that the measurements were wrong, and that he had his technician and office manager review about 1,000 of the tests because he did not have enough time to do the work. A review of the forms Tai submitted found that, in a substantial number of cases, the measurements were clearly incorrect and were actually inconsistent with a human adult heart. Tai was convicted of mail and wire fraud, 18 U.S.C. 1341 and 1343, was sentenced to 72 months’ imprisonment, and was ordered to pay restitution of $4,579,663 and a fine of $15,000. The Third Circuit rejected arguments that the court erred by implicitly shifting the burden of proof in its “willful blindness” jury instruction and applying upward adjustments under the advisory Sentencing Guidelines for abuse of a position of trust and use of a special skill, but remanded for factual findings concerning whether Tai supervised a criminally culpable subordinate, as required for an aggravated role enhancement. View "United States v. Tai" on Justia Law

Haldar, an Indian citizen, came to the U.S. in 1999 and has been a permanent resident since 2006. He founded GVS-Milwaukee, a Hare Krishna religious society and, from 2004 to 2007, GVS sponsored 25 applicants for religious-worker “R-1 visas,” 8 C.F.R. 214.2(r)(1), 17 of which were approved. In 2007 the State Department advised the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that GVS-Milwaukee might be involved in visa fraud. DHS also received a similar anonymous tip and began an investigation that included temple visits, surveillance, searches of Haldar’s luggage on international trips, and interviews with GVS-sponsored visa recipients. In 2010 Haldar was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. under 18 U.S.C. 371. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, rejecting arguments (not raised in the district court) that certain statements from the prosecutor and a government witness improperly called into question the validity of his temple and were unfairly prejudicial under Federal Rule of Evidence 403; the prosecutor misrepresented testimony during his closing argument and relied on facts outside the record; and the district court on its own initiative should have instructed the jury not to scrutinize the religious qualifications of the visa recipients. View "United States v. Haldar" on Justia Law

From 1998 to 2010, Dimora was one of three elected Cuyaho County commissioners. From 2005 to 2010, Gabor worked for the county weights-and-measures office, which inspects gas pumps, grocery store scanners, truck scales and the like for accuracy. In 2007, the FBI began investigating public corruption in Cuyahoga County and discovered that Dimora handed out public jobs, influenced Cleveland decision-makers and steered public contracts in return for about 100 bribes worth more than $250,000. Gabor bought his job for $5,000 and spent most of his time on errands for Dimora that were unrelated to the job, including acting as a go-between in arranging kickback schemes on county projects. When Gabor learned that the FBI was investigating him, he warned his co-conspirators about the investigation and tried to convince them to lie. After a 37-day trial, they were convicted of 39 violations of anti-corruption laws. The district court sentenced Dimora to 336 months in prison and Gabor to 121 months. The Sixth Circuit affirmed, rejecting challenges to a jury instruction for the RICO charge, 18 U.S.C. 1962(c), (d); to the sufficiency of the evidence; and to various evidentiary rulings. View "United States v. Dimora" on Justia Law