Opinion ID: 799367
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Accountant's Testimony

Text: The structuring charges were based on the defendants' frequent practice of making bank deposits of more than $10,000 in a single day but in amounts just below the $10,000 threshold that triggers the bank's federal reporting requirement. Hosseini claimed that his accountant told him that banks aggregate daily deposits from a single source to determine whether they need to file the IRS report. That advice, taken at face value, tended to support Hosseini's claim that the pattern of same-day deposits had an innocent explanation. The government moved to exclude the accountant's testimony. The judge granted the motion, giving three reasons for his decision. First, the judge held that the accountant's testimony was cumulative because Hosseini introduced similar testimony from an employee at one of the banks with which he did business. Second, the accountant himself made several of the questionable deposits on Hosseini's behalf, making him a potential coconspirator and thus creating distracting side issues about the accountant's own culpability. Third, the court held that Hosseini's reliance on the accountant's advice (if indeed he did rely on it) was unjustified because the accountant was not an expert in bankingindustry practices. Hosseini attacks the first and third reasons on appeal. He insists that the accountant's testimony was not cumulative because the bank employee would testify only to conversations with Hosseini about deposits in one specific bank, while the accountant could have testified about banking practices more broadly. He also maintains that whether he justifiably relied on the accountant's advice was a matter for cross-examination and had no bearing on the admissibility of the testimony. Perhaps Hosseini is right that the reliance issue was not a reason to exclude the evidence but, rather, could have been explored on cross-examination. Still, the other reasons for excluding the accountant's testimony were sound. There was considerable overlap between his testimony and that of the bank employee. And the judge's concern about getting sidetracked by the testimony of a potential coconspirator is entitled to deference. The accountant would have been cross-examined about his own conduct and what he knew about the defendants' activities. This would have unduly complicated an already complex five-week trial.