United States Ninth Circuit

In defendant's conviction for wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering, in connection with a fraudulent scheme to obtain, for personal use, funds from a high-tech startup company of which defendant was CEO, judgment of the district court is: 1) reversed as to the mail fraud conviction because the success of the fraudulent scheme did not depend in any way on the use of the mails; 2) affirmed as to the money laundering convictions because they do not raise a Santos merger problem, and "proceeds" should thus be defined as "gross receipts" rather than "profits" in the context of this case; 3) affirmed as to the district court's ruling that the prosecutor's references during closing argument to the defendant's lies during the course of the fraudulent scheme and on the stand did not constitute misconduct; 4) affirmed as to the district court's imposition of supervised release condition; and 5) reversed as to the denial of government's forfeiture application where the rule in Libretti -- that there is no constitutional right to a jury verdict on "forfeitability" in a criminal forfeiture proceeding -- has not been abrogated by subsequent Supreme Court decisions, and there is no statutory requirement for a jury to determine where the government seeks only a money forfeiture.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/26/2012
• Published 12/26/2012

Judges

• Rakoff

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel