Opinion ID: 1435420
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Role Played by Defendants

Text: The defendants were central figures in both conspiracies. They caused the wrongful transactions, and were personally responsible for hiding those transactions. Putting all of these factors together the Rigases have made out a non-frivolous showing of double jeopardy. The New York conspiracy alleges that the Rigases took Adelphia's corporate assets for their personal use and hid those transactions from investors and regulators. The Pennsylvania conspiracy alleges that one reason the Rigases took those same assets was to avoid publicly receiving large salaries on which they would have been required to pay income tax. Because both indictments concern the same underlying transactions, they relate to the same time and place and involve the same core group of participants. Both indictments have a common goal, and individual overt acts in both indictments were interdependent. Accordingly, the Rigases have established a strong inference that there was a single agreement. On remand, the Government will bear the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the Rigases entered into two separate agreements.