22

- 2578 United States v. Cubangbang
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
SUMMARY ORDER Rulings by summary order do not have precedential effect. Citation to a summary order filed on or after January 1, 2007, is permitted and is governed by Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.1 and this court’s Local Rule 32.1.1. When citing a summary
or der in a document filed with this court, a party must cite either the Federal Appendix or an electronic database (with the notation “summary order”). A party citing a summary order must serve a copy of it on any party not represented by counsel.
At a stated term of The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, in the City of New York, on the 22 nd da y of February, two thousand twenty

- four.

PRESENT: D ENNIS J ACOBS , B ETH R OBINSON , A LISON J. N ATHAN , Circuit Judges

.

_________________________________________ U NITED S TATES OF A MERICA , Appellee ,

v. No. 22

- 2578

D ANTE A. C UBANGBANG , AKA S EALED D EFENDANT 1, Defendant

- Appellant , J OHN F. G ARGAN , AKA S EALED D EFENDANT 2 , M ICHAEL K ELLERMAN , AKA S EALED D EFENDANT 3 L OREN P IQUANT , AKA S EALED D EFENDANT 4 , P ORFIRIO L UGO ,2 Defendants

. *

_________________________________________ FOR APPELLANT: Lucas Anderson , Rothman, Schneider, Soloway & Stern, LLP, New York, NY.

FOR APPELLEE: Juliana Murray, Sebastian Swe t t, Assistant United States Attorneys, for Damian Williams, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, New York, NY. Appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Gardephe, J

. ).
UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED,
ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the district court’s September 2 9, 2022 judgment is AFFIRMED

. Dr. Dante A. Cubangbang appeals from a judgment of conviction following his guilty plea to conspiracy to commit promotional money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(A)(i) and (h). H e argues that his conviction should be vacated because his admissions during his plea colloquy did not
establish (1) a conspiracy to commit promotional money laundering and (2) that

* Piquant’s appeal, which was consolidated with Cubangbang ’ s a ppeal and served as the lead case, was voluntarily dismissed

.3 the money laundering allegations had a nexus with the Southern District of New

York to support venue. Because Cubangbang did not raise these contentions
before the district court, we review them for plain error. United States v. Aybar

Peguero , 72 F.4th 478, 48 3

– 84 (2d Cir. 2023). We assume the parties’ familiarity with the underlying facts, procedural history, and arguments on appeal, to which we refer only as necessary to explain our decision to affirm.

I. Factual Basis for Promotional Money Laundering Conspiracy Cubangbang argues his guilty plea was invalid because it lacked an adequate factual basis. See Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(b)(3). Specifically, he claims that he

never admitted to an essential element: knowingly entering into an agreement in

which he or another conspirator would make financial transactions that would “promote the carrying on of” a drug trafficking activity . Appellant’s Br. 1. 1 We disagree.

At the change of plea hearing, the district court asked Cubangbang to explain, in his own words, what he did to be found guilty. He said: Between approximately 2008 and 2018, in the Southern District of New York, I knowingly and intentionally agreed with others to violate the narcotics laws of the United States. Specifically, I, without

1 In our quotations from caselaw and the parties’ briefs, we omit all internal quotation marks, alterations, footnotes, and citations, unless otherwise noted.4 legitimate medical purposes, wrote prescriptions for oxycodone. As part of the scheme, bills were submitted to health care insurers for medically unnecessary services, including prescriptions and urinalysis tests. Further, the resulting profits were used to further this illegal scheme. App’x 62. This explanation supplied an adequate factual basis for Cubangbang’s

conviction. Cubangbang specifically confessed to an agreement with others in

which he issue d oxycodone prescriptions without a legitimate medical purpose
.
He elaborated by explaining that the conspiracy included billing health care

insurers for unnecessary medical services related to the prescriptions and deploying the resulting proceeds to further the illegal scheme. These admissions

established the necessary factual basis for Cuban g bang’s conviction for conspiracy to commit promotional money laundering

. See United States v. Thorn , 317 F.3d 107,

133

– 34 (2d Cir. 2003) (refunneling unlawful proceeds back into illegal enterprise could sustain a conviction for conspiracy to commit promotional money laundering). Although Cubangbang used the passive voice to describ e how the conspiracy’s proceeds were deployed (“the resulting profits were used to further this illegal scheme”) , in the context of the preceding sentences, his admission5 reflects that his agreement with other s included using the proceeds to further the

collective scheme.

We therefore conclude that Cubangbang gave the district court a sufficiently descriptive explanation of his guilty conduct to supply an adequate factual basis , and no additional questioning from the district court was required

. See United

States v. Torrellas , 455 F.3d 96, 104 (2d Cir. 2006) (“[A] district court need not elicit detailed narrative responses from a defendant to satisfy itself that the plea has a
factual basis[.]”).

II. Venue Cubangbang’s argument that the plea colloquy failed to establish facts to
support venue is also unavailing. A defendant who enters a knowing and voluntary guilty plea waives all non

- jurisdictional defects. United States v.

Calderon , 243 F.3d 587, 590 (2d Cir. 2001). We have previously explained that improper venue is not a jurisdictional defect , as it is not a formal element of an offense that must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. ; United States v. Chen , 378 F.3d 151, 159 (2d Cir. 2004)

. Accor dingly, when the district court accepted Cubangbang’s guilty plea, it did not have to satisfy itself that venue was proper ,6 and his guilty plea waived any challenge to venue
. See Calderon , 243 F.3d at 590

–
91.

* * * We have considered Dr. Cubangbang’s remaining arguments and conclude they are without merit. Having found no error, plain or otherwise , the judgment

of the district court is AFFIRMED

. FOR THE COURT: Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, Clerk of Court