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Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

Thorn, Again

United States v. Thorn, No. 11-37-cr (2d Cir. October 20, 2011) (Jacobs, Sack, Raggi, CJJ)

This is Joseph Thorn’s third time in the circuit. Thorn ran an upstate asbestos removal company; he performed dangerous, substandard work, and used the money he earned to grow the business. In 2000, a Northern District jury convicted him of money laundering and environmental crimes, and the district court sentenced him to 65 months’ imprisonment. On the government’s appeal, the circuit vacated the sentence – the guidelines were mandatory then – and on remand the district court downwardly departed to 168 months from what it thought was a 235-month guideline minimum. The government appealed and won again. By this time the guidelines were advisory, however, so while the guideline minimum was now up to 292 months, the district court sentenced Thorn to 144 months.

Three years later, Thorn filed a 2255 motion, seeking to vacate …

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Categories: cause and prejudice, money laundering, procedural default, Uncategorized

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Monday, October 10th, 2011

PC World

There have been two interesting per curiams in the past couple of weeks.

Sometimes immigration law and criminal law intersect. They did in Prus v. Holder, No. 10-599-ag (2d Cir. September 28, 2011) (Calabresi, Wesley, Lynch, CJJ). Here, the court held that the New York offense of promoting prostitution in the third degree under Penal Law §§ 20.00 and 230.35 is not an aggravated felony. The term “prostitution” is not defined in the aggravated felony statute. But, under the immigration statute rendering aliens who enter the United States to engage in prostitution inadmissible, prostitution is defined as “promiscuous sexual intercourse for hire.” Since identical words in different parts of the same act are construed to have the same meaning, the same definition should be used in the ag-fel section. But the New York offense of promoting prostitution encompasses a definition of “prostitution” – it includes “sexual conduct” – that is …

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A Bridge To FARC

United States v. al Kassar, No. 09-1051-cr (2d Cir. September 21, 2011) (Jacobs, Hall, CJJ, Scheindlin, DJ)

Defendants were convicted of various terrorism offenses in connection with a sting operation in which a CI, who was working for the DEA, introduced al Kassar to two undercover DEA agents posing as members of FARC, the left-wing Colombian guerrilla group. The defendants agreed to supply FARC with weapons, including surface to air missiles (“SAM”s) to use against United States military personnel and equipment in Colombia.

All of the criminal conduct occurred outside of the United States – mostly in Lebanon, Spain, Bulgaria and Romania. The district court denied the defendants’ motions to dismiss the indictment on jurisdictional grounds, and in this opinion, the circuit affirmed.

There is a presumption that acts of Congress do not apply extraterritorially, but even if the statute is not explicit, an intent can be inferred from the …

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Categories: extraterritorial jurisdiction, Uncategorized

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Saturday, October 8th, 2011

Aliens vs. Predator

United States v. Archer, No. 10-4684-cr (2d Cir. September 20, 2011) (Newman, Calabresi, Hall, CJJ)

Thomas Archer, a solo-practitioner immigration lawyer in Queens, ran a visa fraud mill. His specialty was the I-687, an amnesty program that permitted certain aliens who were here illegally in the 1980’s to adjust their status and receive a visa. In 2004 and 2005, Archer filed nearly 240 I-687 applications; the DHS denied them all.

Convicted of visa fraud and conspiracy to commit visa fraud, his appeal concerned both trial issues – centered around his claim that he did know know that his assistants were filing forms with false information – and sentencing issues. The circuit affirmed Archer’s conviction, but remanded for resentencing and recalculation of the restitution.

The Trial Issues

At trial, an immigration agent who had reviewed 175 I-687 applications that Archer’s office filed, testified that almost all of them had certain suspicious …

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Categories: document enhancement, knowledge, obstruction of justice, restitution, Uncategorized, victims

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Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

No Need to Remand Me

United States v. Elbert, No. 10-72-cr (2d Cir. September 19, 2011)(Jacobs, Cabranes, CJJ, Kravitz, DJ)

A recent anomaly in circuit practice has been its treatment of cases where the district court did not provide a written statement of reasons for the sentence that complies with 18 U.S.C. § 3553(c)(2). In cases where appellate counsel files a merits brief, counsel can waive a remand for a statement of reasons. But, where counsel files an Anders brief, under United States v. Hall, 499 F.3d 152 (2d Cir. 2007), failure to provide a statement of reasons always necessitates a remand.

Until now. This decision abrogates Hall to the “limited extent that it uniformly require remand in these circumstances.” Hall was based on the court’s understanding that the statement of reasons “assists” the BOP and the Sentencing Commission “in the collection of data.” While that is “no doubt for the good,” its effect is …

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Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

Re: Joinder

United States v. Page, No. 10-3150-cr (2d Cir. September 16, 2011) (Walker, Hall, Chin, CJJ)

Defendant was tried on five drug counts and a felon-in-possession count. In the district court, he moved to sever the gun count so that the jury considering the drug charges would not learn that he had a felony conviction. The court denied the motion and the circuit, finding no prejudice, affirmed.

Background

In 2007 and 2008, Page was selling drugs – first crack, then heroin – in Norwich, Connecticut. During this time, he became involved in an altercation outside a bar, and brandished a gun; to avoid trouble, he stashed the gun at his girlfriend’s apartment. Agents raided the apartment the next day and found the gun and some drugs.

Page ultimately faced a six-count indictment; the first five counts alleged drug offenses – although the government ultimately dropped one of these – and count …

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Categories: bifurcation, joinder, severance, Uncategorized

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Sunday, September 11th, 2011

Tipper Gored

United States v. Gansman, No. 10–0731-cr (2d Cir. September 9, 2011) (Cabranes, Chin, CJJ, Keenan, DJ)

From 2005 to 2007, James Gansman, an attorney at Ernst and Young, was having an affair with one Donna Murdoch. Perhaps as part of their “pillow talk,” Gansman – the “tipper” – would pass Murdoch material, non-public information, on which Murdoch – the “tippee” – traded profitably. Gansman was ultimately prosecuted for securities fraud under the “misappropriation” theory – as described by the Supreme Court, this occurs when a defendant misappropriates confidential information for securities trading purposes, in breach of a duty owed to the source of the information.Liability can attach even if the defendant does not trade on it himself.

Gansman, whose defense was that he did not intend to commit securities fraud, sought a jury instruction under SEC Rule 10b5-2, asking the court to instruct that Gansman shared information with Murdoch as …

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Porn Free

United States v. Aumais, No. 10-3160-cr (2d Cir. September 8, 2011) (Jacobs, Winter, McLaughlin, CJJ)

In this interesting opinion, the court weighs in on a subject of national controversy: whether a defendant convicted of possessing or receiving child pornography should be ordered to pay restitution to those depicted in the images. On the facts here the court, largely bucking the national trend, concluded that restitution was not appropriate.

This case involves images of a woman who uses the pseudonym Amy. Her uncle abused her for years when she was a child; he photographed the abuse and the images made their way to the internet. The uncle went to prison, but the images are still widely circulated. The effects of this on Amy have been devastating, and far transcend the harm caused by the abuse itself. She is so fearful of being identified in public from one of the images that …

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Categories: causation, child pornography, restitution, Uncategorized

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Sunday, August 28th, 2011

Big Brother Listens To Big Sister

United States v. Rodriguez, No. 10-2724-cr (2d Cir. August 25, 2011) (Miner, McLaughlin, Pooler, CJJ)

While detained at the MDC, Rodriguez called his sister and asked her to tell their brother to contact Rodriguez’ attorney so that they could discuss whether he should “cop out” before being indicted. He indicated that the sooner he spoke with his attorney the better, and that they should tell the lawyer to tell the prosecutor that he wanted to plead guilty to the “five-to-40″ drug charge in the complaint.

The district court found that the call was not covered by the attorney-client privilege because Rodriguez knew that the BOP was recording it. It allowed the government to play the recording at Rodriguez’ trial, and the circuit affirmed.

First, the court had to decide on a standard of review. Whether the attorney-client privilege applies is reviewed de novo, while a finding that it has been …

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Have Guns, Will Travel

United States v. Nadirashvili, No. 08-4211-cr (2c Cir. August 23, 2011) (Winter, Pooler, Hall, CJJ)

Six-defendant appellants appealed their convictions in a wide-ranging firearms conspiracy that had both international and domestic components. One part of the activity involved trafficking in “foreign defense articles” – here, grenades, warheads, missiles and launchers, amongst other things – under 22 U.S.C. 2278(b), and the other part involved domestic firearms trafficking under 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(1)(A). Apart from one sentencing glitch, the circuit affirmed.

The opinion contains two interesting discussions of statutory requirements that the criminal activity involve those who are “in the business” of weapons dealing.

First, two defendants argued that there was insufficient evidence to support their § 922(a)(1)(A) convictions because they were aware of only a single gun transaction, and the evidence did not show that they knew the seller was engaged in the business of trafficking in firearms. The court agreed …

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Gone To Pot

United States v. Celaj, No. 10-2792-cr (2d Cir. August 22, 2011)(Miner, Cabranes, Straub, CJJ)

Din Celaj headed a crew that would rob – or try to rob – drug dealers. When successful, they would obtain drugs, which they would themselves sell, money and firearms.

He went to trial on several Hobbs Act robbery and associated 924(c) counts, was convicted, and received a 601-month sentence. On appeal, he made a sufficiency claim as to the jurisdictional element of the Hobbs Act counts where the goal was to steal marijuana. He did so despite entering into a stipulation at trial that “marijuana is grown outside of the state of New York and travels in interstate and foreign commerce to arrive in the New York City area.” The circuit affirmed.

The court began by surveying the area. In Parkes, see “Government Has No Evidence; Court Deems It Sufficient,” posted September 23, 2007, the …

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