Opinion ID: 427194
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: sufficiency of evidence against achuck

Text: 69 Achuck challenges the government's evidence against him as insufficient to support his conviction. He points out that [t]here was no proof whatsoever that [he] played any role in the submission of the Interconex/IMS bid to Raytheon, or that he attended any meetings or had a single conversation concerning the modular housing shipping contract prior to Raytheon's takeover of the fourth charter. Brief for Appellants at 61-62. 70 In reviewing the evidence for sufficiency, we must consider all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the government. Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942); United States v. Lewis, 626 F.2d 940, 951 (D.C.Cir.1980); Crawford v. United States, 375 F.2d 332, 334 (D.C.Cir.1967). We must also accept all reasonable inferences supporting the verdict. United States v. Habel, 613 F.2d 1321 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 447 U.S. 925, 100 S.Ct. 3018, 65 L.Ed.2d 1117 (1980); see also United States v. Skinner, 425 F.2d 552, 554 (D.C.Cir.1970). With this in mind, we find sufficient evidence to support Achuck's conviction. 71 The evidence showed that Achuck was intimately involved in setting up various offshore accounts through which the defendants channelled the money Raytheon paid for shipping. These accounts were established just prior to the award of the IMS contract for housing. The evidence suggests that they served no function other than as a conduit for money paid as part of that contract. Thus, a jury might reasonably infer that Achuck set up those accounts because he had foreknowledge that Interconex would get the bid for shipping the housing to Saudi Arabia, and that that venture would generate excessive profits. In light of these financial dealings, it is significant as well that Achuck cannot otherwise explain the hidden receipt of $500,000 from the shipping contract. The jury could have reasonably inferred from Achuck's receipt of his share of the scheme's bounty that he knew of the scheme. 72 Achuck seems to believe that because he did not participate in, or even know about, the actual mechanism by which the others perpetrated the fraud he cannot be convicted. This is not so. 36 The evidence detailed above was certainly sufficient to support a finding that Achuck conspired to commit fraud on Raytheon. Thus, he can also be convicted of the substantive offenses of wire fraud and transporting securities taken by fraud based on the foreseeable acts of his co-conspirators perpetrated in furtherance of the conspiracy. Pinkerton v. United States, 328 U.S. 640, 66 S.Ct. 1180, 90 L.Ed. 1489 (1946). We thus uphold the jury's conviction of Achuck.