United States Tenth Circuit

Grant of defendants' motion for judgment of acquittal after a jury found them guilty of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and conspiracy to commit money laundering is reversed and remanded where: 1) the evidence did not support broad conspiracies to defraud the U.S. and to launder money whereby defendants acted "together" for their "shared mutual benefit"; 2) thus, they were not interdependent coconspirators and the government failed to prove the two widespread conspiracies charged; but 3) even though a variance occurred, defendants did not suffer substantial prejudice as a result.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/22/2008
• Published 07/23/2008

Judges

• TACHA, Circuit Judge., Before HENRY, Chief Circuit Judge, TACHA, and BRISCOE, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Patricia W. Davies, Assistant United States Attorney (Troy A. Eid, United States Attorney, and Martha A. Paluch, Assistant United States Attorney, with her on the briefs), Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Colorado, Denver, CO, appearing for Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Patrick D. Butler, Lamm & Butler, LLC, Louisville, CO, appearing for Appellee Carnagie., Peter Menges, The Law Office of Peter D. Menges, P.C., Denver, CO, appearing for Appellee Hilaire.