United States Eleventh Circuit

Defendants' convictions and sentences for conspiracy to commit bribery, substantive offenses of bribery, honest services mail fraud, mail fraud, and obstruction of justice are affirmed in part where: 1) the indictment itself was not defective for failure to allege a specific quid pro quo; 2) there was no requirement in 18 U.S.C. section 666(a)(1)(B) or (a)(2) that the government allege or prove an intent that a specific payment was solicited, received, or given in exchange for a specific official act, termed a quid pro quo; 3) direct evidence of an agreement to pay a bribe was unnecessary to prove conspiracy, and the existence of the agreement and a defendant's participation in the conspiracy could be proven entirely from circumstantial evidence; and 4) Fed. R. Evid. 404(b) did not exclude evidence that was "inextricably intertwined" with evidence of the charged offense. However, one defendant's conviction is reversed as to a bribery conspiracy count where defendant-s receipt of the benefit of certain March and June 2000 disbursements could not be considered "overt acts" knowingly committed by him, and the bribery conspiracy in Count 75 was hence beyond the statute of limitations.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/12/2010
• Published 05/12/2010

Judges

• HULL, Circuit Judge:, Before CARNES, HULL and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Eleventh Circuit

Counsel