Source: https://www.pbwt.com/jacqueline-l-bonneau/second-circuit-criminal-law-blog/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 14:53:01+00:00

Document:
In United States v. Scully, 16-3073-cr (Pooler, Lynch, Cogan), the Second Circuit vacated the defendant’s conviction for various offenses, including mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, the sale of misbranded and unapproved drugs, and the unlicensed wholesale distribution of prescription drugs, finding that the District Court erred in excluding evidence related to his advice-of-counsel defense. The opinion provides a helpful overview of the requirements of Rule 403 balancing and the nature of the burden in establishing an advice-of-counsel defense.
We are attaching an article about a major Supreme Court decision that imposes a five-year statute of limitations on disgorgement actions brought by the SEC. Justice Sotomayor, writing for a unanimous court, held that disgorgement is a financial penalty, not a form of restitution to victims. The SEC now must either more quickly bring its charges or persuade targets of its investigation to agree to a tolling agreement.
In United States v. Jones, 15-1518-cr (Walker, Calabresi, Hall), the Second Circuit, applying the Supreme Court’s holdings in Johnson v. United States, 559 U.S. 133 (2010) and Johnson v. United States, 134 S. Ct. 2551 (2015) (Johnson 2015), struck down the “residual clause” of the Career Offender Guideline as void for vagueness and held that a conviction for robbery in New York no longer constitutes a “crime of violence” in all circumstances. This case reaffirms Second Circuit precedent recognizing the application of Johnson and Johnson 2015 to the sentencing guidelines, an issue that will be taken up by the Supreme Court this fall.
In In re 650 Fifth Avenue and Related Properties, 14-2027 (Kearse, Raggi, Wesley), the Second Circuit vacated an award forfeiting the appellants’—the Alavi Foundation and 650 Fifth Avenue Company—properties to the United States. The lower court ordered the forfeiture of the properties, including inter alia, a 36-story office building located at 650 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, on two grounds: (1) pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 981(a)(1)(C) as proceeds traceable to violations of the International Emergency Powers Act and certain Iranian Transactions Regulations issued by the Department of the Treasury, and (2) as property involved in money laundering transactions forfeitable under 18 U.S.C. § 981(a)(1)(A).
In United States v. Compton, 15-942-cr (Walker, Raggi, Hall), the Second Circuit held that an extended Terry stop by Border Patrol agents was justified by reasonable suspicion and declined to suppress evidence obtained during the stop. Compton confirms the proposition that a court may consider a defendant’s attempt to avoid a checkpoint as a relevant factor in the “reasonable suspicion analysis” and highlights the fact-intensive nature of that analysis.

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