Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-2nd-circuit/1148310.html
Timestamp: 2019-01-21 10:43:08
Document Index: 351750846

Matched Legal Cases: ['§\u2002371', '§\u20021001', '§\u20021341', '§\u20021341', '§\u20021341', '§\u20021346', '§\u20023', '§\u20022', '§\u20023', '§\u20022', '§\u20022']

UNITED STATES v. Shaikh Saeed, Defendant. | FindLaw
UNITED STATES v. Shaikh Saeed, Defendant.
UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Sheldon WALKER and Mohammed Rasheed Khan, also known as Rashid Uddin Khan, Defendants-Appellants, Shaikh Saeed, Defendant.
Docket Nos. 98-1552(L), 98-1564.
Before: NEWMAN, WALKER, and SOTOMAYOR, Circuit Judges. Roger Bennet Adler, New York, N.Y., for Defendant-Appellant Walker. Maranda E. Fritz, Fritz & Miller, New York, N.Y., for Defendant-Appellant Khan. Richard Sullivan, Assistant United States Attorney (Mary Jo White, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; Christine H. Chung and George S. Canellos, Assistant United States Attorneys, of counsel ), New York, N.Y., for Appellee.
Defendants-appellants Sheldon Walker, an immigration attorney, and Mohammed Rasheed Khan, an interpreter in Walker's office, were convicted after a jury trial on counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, and making false statements to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”). The charges arose from an extensive pattern of fraudulent asylum applications submitted to the INS. Walker and Khan appeal from the October 2, 1998 judgments of conviction entered in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Harold Baer, Jr., District Judge ).
On October 8, 1997, the government filed a twenty-eight count superseding indictment. The indictment charged Walker and Khan in count one with conspiracy to submit false statements to the INS and to commit mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371; charged Walker with thirteen counts of false statements in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1001 and 2, and fourteen substantive mail fraud counts in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 2; and charged Khan in three false application and three mail fraud counts. Walker and Khan were tried jointly before a jury in May, 1998.
The government's case consisted of testimony from INS officials, former employees in Walker's office, and Walker's former clients, as well as a large amount of documentary evidence. Catrin Lea, an INS official, testified about asylum procedures and policies, explaining how applicants for asylum in the early 1990s were routinely given work authorizations that allowed them to work temporarily in the United States while their applications were under review. Special Agent Craig Vanderhoff of the INS described the initiation of the INS investigation into Walker's office. David Cartier, an INS “intelligence research specialist” who regularly reviewed applications for patterns of abuse, testified that in August of 1995, after examining 1365 applications submitted by Walker's office, he found that the applications from immigrants from different countries fell into regular patterns. For example, on Bangladeshi applications, a series of nineteen stories were repeatedly employed almost word-for-word, with certain phrases appearing in identical fashion.
Walker and Khan challenge their convictions and sentences on a number of fronts. Both contest the sufficiency of the evidence supporting their convictions. Walker also argues that the district court should have excluded the testimony of INS agent David Cartier, while Khan argues that the district court should not have excluded additional, truthful asylum applications that he had prepared. Walker contends that government misconduct in summation requires reversal of his convictions, and that the jury should not have received a “conscious avoidance” instruction. Both claim errors at sentencing: Walker that he should not have received an enhancement for abuse of a position of trust, and that the district court was unaware of its authority to depart downward due to extraordinary family circumstances, and both defendants that their sentences should not have been increased for the submission of more than 100 false applications. We will examine each argument in turn.
Walker and Khan each challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain their convictions. In considering such a challenge, we review all of the evidence presented at trial “in the light most favorable to the government, crediting every inference that the jury might have drawn in favor of the government.” United States v. Hernandez, 85 F.3d 1023, 1030 (2d Cir.1996). We will affirm a conviction so long as “ ‘any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.’ ” United States v. Tocco, 135 F.3d 116, 123 (2d Cir.) (quoting Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979)), cert. denied, 523 U.S. 1096, 118 S.Ct. 1581, 140 L.Ed.2d 795 (1998). However, “a conviction based on speculation and surmise alone cannot stand.” United States v. D'Amato, 39 F.3d 1249, 1256 (2d Cir.1994) (citing United States v. Wiley, 846 F.2d 150, 155 (2d Cir.1988)).
A. False Statements
Walker and Khan were also convicted under the mail fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1341. Walker argues that there was insufficient evidence that he intended to harm or defraud his clients, the alleged victims of his scheme. He maintains that, by and large, the clients received results they were seeking and that they were not the victims of any fraud.
To procure a conviction for mail fraud, the government must prove three elements: (1) a scheme to defraud victims of (2) money or property, through the (3) use of the mails. See United States v. Dinome, 86 F.3d 277, 283 (2d Cir.1996). Proof of fraudulent intent, or the specific intent to harm or defraud the victims of the scheme, is an essential component of the “scheme to defraud” element. See id.; United States v. Starr, 816 F.2d 94, 98 (2d Cir.1987).
The first element focuses on the intent to harm; the second element is concerned with the precise nature of that harm, and requires that the harm be concrete. The “money or property” formulation found in 18 U.S.C. § 1341 has been broadened by statute and caselaw to extend beyond tangible property. The second element can also be satisfied when the defendant's scheme is intended to deprive its victims of “the intangible right of honest services,” 18 U.S.C. § 1346, or of the right to control their own assets, see United States v. Rossomando, 144 F.3d 197, 201-02 n. 5 (2d Cir.1998); Dinome, 86 F.3d at 283. While the scheme to defraud need not have been successful, the defendant must have contemplated some actual harm or injury to the victims. See Dinome, 86 F.3d at 283; D'Amato, 39 F.3d at 1257.
At trial, the government's theory of Walker's scheme to defraud was that Walker, assisted by Khan and others, exacted legal fees from his clients by submitting false asylum applications on their behalf, regardless of the clients' actual intentions or legal needs. The government described the mail fraud scheme as follows: “Sheldon Walker and his employees were engaged in defrauding the clients ․ of their fee by not telling them material information, information that might have led them to walk out of the office and not pay their fee.” In its charge to the jury, the district court confined its discussion of intent to defraud to the statement that the jury need find “that the defendants acted ․ with the specific intent to deceive their clients for the purpose of causing injury to the client by depriving them of money or property.”
This case bears a surface resemblance to United States v. Starr, 816 F.2d 94 (2d Cir.1987), in which we reversed the convictions of defendants who had run a mail and package scheme. In that case, as here, the government alleged that the putative victims of the scheme to defraud were the defendants' business clients. In Starr, the clients paid the defendants the regular postage rate to ship their packages. See id. at 96. Unbeknownst to the clients, the defendants shipped the clients' mail in bulk rate packages at a reduced rate and pocketed the difference. See id.
While the Starr case featured plenty of mail, and plenty of fraud, we held that there was no statutory mail fraud because the government failed to prove that the defendants intended to harm their victims. The clients got what they bargained for: their packages were delivered to the proper places, at the proper times, for the agreed-upon prices. Thus, the defendants' scheme neither harmed nor contemplated any harm to their clients. As we said in Starr, “the harm contemplated [in a scheme to defraud] must affect the very nature of the bargain itself. Such harm is apparent where there exists a ‘discrepancy between benefits reasonably anticipated because of the misleading representations and the actual benefits which the defendant delivered, or intended to deliver.’ ” Id. at 98 (quoting United States v. Regent Office Supply Co., 421 F.2d 1174, 1182 (2d Cir.1970)). In Starr, there was no such discrepancy; the defendants “in no way misrepresented to their customers the nature or quality of the service they were providing.” Id. at 99.
A. The INS Specialist's Testimony
David Cartier, a research specialist at the INS, testified that of the 1365 asylum applications from Walker's office that he reviewed, many bore accounts of persecution that were very similar or even identical. We reject Walker's claim that this was improper expert testimony because it offered legal conclusions. Cartier's testimony simply summarized and commented on the contents of the applications without opining on the truth or falsity of those accounts or on whether Walker had committed a crime. Moreover, the applications themselves were before the jury and available to the defense for purposes of cross-examining Cartier. We review the admission of this summary evidence for abuse of discretion. See Fagiola v. National Gypsum Co. AC & S., 906 F.2d 53, 56 (2d Cir.1990). Its admission into evidence was well within the discretion of the district court under Fed.R.Evid. 1006.
B. Honest Applications
At trial, Khan unsuccessfully sought to introduce asylum applications that he had prepared that contained non-boilerplate, honest accounts of persecution, on the theory that the existence of these honest applications disproved his fraudulent intent in this case. The district court's rejection of this evidence was not error. Whether Khan had prepared other, non-fraudulent applications was simply irrelevant to whether the applications charged as false statements were fraudulent. Cf. United States v. Winograd, 656 F.2d 279, 284 (7th Cir.1981) (finding defendant's performance of some legal trades irrelevant to his knowledge of illegal trades). Accordingly, the district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding this evidence.
III. The Government's Summation
At the close of the summation by Walker's attorney, counsel for the government applauded. He then started his rebuttal by stating to defense counsel, “[T]hat was a phenomenal job. That was phenomenal. Your arguments were terrific. You are the trial lawyer you said you are in the opening. I am sure [the government] really learned something from that.” Although defense counsel raised no objection at the time, Walker later made a post-trial motion pursuant to Fed.R.Crim.P. 33 for a new trial, arguing that the prosecutor's behavior was unprofessional and inappropriate, citing United States v. Burns, 104 F.3d 529 (2d Cir.1997). Walker also contended that the government's rebuttal misrepresented the trial testimony of Vilasini and Akcali and improperly bolstered Rizvi's credibility, and that the cumulative prejudice of this misconduct in rebuttal required reversal. The district court rejected Walker's Rule 33 motion. Walker reiterates these arguments on this appeal.
In Burns, we reprimanded the government for inappropriate conduct for applauding at the end of defense counsel's summation, “not out of admiration for the craftsmanship of a fellow advocate, but as a sarcastic commentary on defense counsel's summation.” Id. at 537. However, we declined to reverse in light of the curative measures taken by the trial court, the isolated nature of the misconduct in the context of the entire trial, and the likelihood of conviction without the applause. See id.
Here, the district court found that the government's applause was “clearly out of admiration,” and “seemingly represented a strategic acknowledgment of a compelling performance.” United States v. Walker, No. SI 96 CR. 736, 1998 WL 637488, at *1 (S.D.N.Y. Sept.17, 1998). “At worst,” the district court concluded, the applause “represented a permissible theatrical device designed to capture the jury's attention.” Id. at *2. While we cannot approve the government's entirely unprofessional conduct in purporting to cheer for defense counsel's summation, precisely because it can be taken or mistaken by the jury as inappropriate sarcasm, we agree with the district court that reversal is not required. Given the fact that the occurrence did not prompt a contemporaneous objection-an indication that the incident did not affect the trial atmosphere in a manner disadvantageous to Walker-and given the overwhelming evidence of Walker's guilt, we have no doubt that the verdict would have been the same absent the applause and commentary.
Walker contends that it was error for the district court to give the jury a conscious avoidance instruction. We have previously held that “[a] conscious-avoidance instruction is appropriate when a defendant claims to lack some specific aspect of knowledge necessary to conviction but where the evidence may be construed as deliberate ignorance.” United States v. Gabriel, 125 F.3d 89, 98 (2d Cir.1997) (quoting United States v. Beech-Nut Nutrition Corp., 871 F.2d 1181, 1195 (2d Cir.1989)). This was Walker's precise claim at trial, and this is a paradigmatic case of when a conscious avoidance charge is appropriate. Walker argued that responsibility for any false applications rested solely with his employees, and that he knew nothing of their wrongdoing. However, Walker supervised his employees and occasionally reviewed their completed applications, Akcali confronted Walker about a false story on his application, and Walker himself instructed Perlleshi to sign blank forms that later contained a false account of persecution. This and other evidence easily supported the inference that even if Walker did not have direct knowledge of the crimes occurring in his office, he deliberately remained ignorant of them. Under these circumstances, the charge was proper.
Walker and Khan also challenge their sentences. Walker argues that he should not have received an enhancement for abuse of a position of trust pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3, and that the district court misapprehended its authority to depart downward due to his extraordinary family circumstances. In addition, both defendants maintain that they should not have received the six-level increase pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2L2.1(b)(2)(C) that was imposed because the offense involved more than one hundred false statements.
Walker, an attorney, submitted false asylum applications on behalf of hundreds of immigrants, many of whom had no idea that such an application was being submitted at all. Section 3B1.3 of the Sentencing Guidelines states that the offense level will be increased when a defendant “abused a position of public or private trust ․ in a manner that significantly facilitated the commission or concealment of the offense.” U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3. The first application note describes such a position as being “characterized by professional or managerial discretion.” Id. at app. n. 1. Whether a position is one of “trust” within the meaning of the guidelines is a question of law subject to de novo review; whether the defendant used the position to facilitate significantly the commission of the offense is a question of fact that we review only for clear error. See United States v. Laljie, 184 F.3d 180, 194 (2d Cir.1999).
Walker argues that it was inappropriate for the district court to apply the abuse of a position of trust enhancement because 1) he did not have a fiduciary relationship with his clients, and 2) he did not exercise any discretion with regard to his clients' representation. We reject this argument. As a general matter, an attorney occupies a position of trust with regard to his clients. Cf. United States v. Carrozzella, 105 F.3d 796, 800-01 (2d Cir.1997) (holding that a trustee in probate court holds a “position of trust”). Walker cannot hide behind the poor quality of his representation to avoid the reach of this sentencing enhancement. He possessed the discretion to determine how to handle each of his clients' cases, and he abused that discretion when he elected to submit or direct the submission of fraudulent applications on their behalf. It was not clearly erroneous for the district court to determine that Walker's position of trust as an attorney facilitated his crimes; his position and his ability to represent clients in immigration proceedings made the crimes possible in the first instance.
B. Extraordinary Family Circumstances
In this circuit a district court may depart downward in sentencing a defendant due to extraordinary family circumstances. See United States v. Galante, 111 F.3d 1029, 1033 (2d Cir.1997); United States v. Johnson, 964 F.2d 124, 128-29 (2d Cir.1992). However, these departures must be reserved for situations that are truly extraordinary. See Galante, 111 F.3d at 1038-39 (Kearse, J., dissenting). A decision not to depart from the guidelines is ordinarily not reviewable by this court, see United States v. Brown, 98 F.3d 690, 692 (2d Cir.1996) (per curiam), but we may review a failure to depart if there is “clear evidence of a substantial risk that the judge misapprehended the scope of his departure authority,” id. at 694; see also United States v. Galvez-Falconi, 174 F.3d 255, 257 (2d Cir.1999).
There is no such evidence in this case. The district court stated at sentencing that “the guidelines do not permit a departure” due to Walker's obligations as a husband and father, but we understand the district court to have meant that no departure would be permitted under the specific circumstances of this case. A district court is presumed to be aware of the scope of its ability to depart downward, see Brown, 98 F.3d at 694 (recognizing a “strong presumption” that a district judge is aware of his discretion to depart), and one isolated statement in the context of this case is insufficient to rebut that presumption. We will not revisit the district judge's decision not to depart downward for extraordinary family circumstances.
C. Number of False Statements
Walker and Khan both challenge the district court's decision to increase their offense levels by six levels pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2L2.1. The guideline (as it existed in November of 1995) required a six-level increase in the offense level if the offense of conviction involved more than one hundred false documents. See U.S.S.G. § 2L2.1(b)(2)(C) (1995).
1. In addition, the fraudulent applications could have exposed many of the clients to indictment for false statements themselves. At the very least, the applications embroiled several of them in legal difficulty, forcing them to sign cooperation agreements to avoid prosecution.