Opinion ID: 167108
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Jury Instruction Errors Alleged by Mr. Wittig

Text: 96 Mr. Wittig challenges the district court's jury instructions on three grounds. We review a district court's decision to give a particular jury instruction for an abuse of discretion. Osteguin v. S. Pac. Transp. Co., 144 F.3d 1293, 1295 (10th Cir.1998). However, we review de novo whether, considering the instructions as a whole, the jury was misled. Wilson v. Muckala, 303 F.3d 1207, 1214 (10th Cir. 2002). In reviewing such allegations, this court examines the record as a whole to determine whether the instructions state the applicable law and provide the jury with an appropriate understanding of the issues and the legal standards to apply. Faulkner v. Super Valu Stores, 3 F.3d 1419, 1424 (10th Cir.1993). 97
98 Mr. Wittig argues that the jury instructions allowed him to be convicted of the § 1005 violations based on a finding that he acted alone, solely as a bank customer. Again invoking the Third Circuit's decision in Barel, he maintains that the statute does not authorize prosecutions based on such a theory. Although Mr. Wittig acknowledges that the jury was also instructed that he could be convicted of the § 1005 violations on an aiding and abetting or a conspiracy theory, he contends that one cannot determine whether the jury relied on these theories or on the theory that he acted alone as a bank customer. 99 Mr. Wittig's challenge is based on the Supreme Court's decision in Yates v. United States, 354 U.S. 298, 77 S.Ct. 1064, 1 L.Ed.2d 1356 (1957), overruled on other grounds by Burks v. United States, 437 U.S. 1, 98 S.Ct. 2141, 57 L.Ed.2d 1 (1978). In Yates, the Court held that a verdict must be set aside where the verdict is supportable on one ground, but not on another, and it is impossible to tell which ground the jury selected. Id. at 312, 77 S.Ct. 1064. In a subsequent decision, the Court limited that holding to instances in which one of the possible bases of conviction was legally insufficient as opposed to factually insufficient. See Griffin v. United States, 502 U.S. 46, 58-59, 112 S.Ct. 466, 116 L.Ed.2d 371 (1991) (discussing Yates ). 100 Here, even assuming that Mr. Wittig is correct in arguing that a bank customer cannot be prosecuted for a direct violation of § 1005, he has not established that his § 1005 convictions are invalid. The jury was also instructed that Mr. Wittig could be liable for violating § 1005 as an aider or abettor or as a conspirator, and from a review of the instructions, evidence, and arguments of counsel, it is clear that it the jury relied on those theories in convicting Mr. Wittig of the § 1005 violations. 101 In particular, as to counts 2-4, the government, as Mr. Wittig himself contends, offered no evidence that Mr. Wittig submitted the documents at issue (the loan proposal, the questionnaire responses, and Mr. Weidner's financial statement). Thus, the only basis on which the jury could have found Mr. Wittig responsible for these violations was on an aiding and abetting or conspiracy theory. 102 As to count 5, the government alleged that Mr. Wittig's submission of his January 8, 2002 financial statement was an overt act carried out in furtherance of the conspiracy. The fact that the jury convicted Mr. Weidner on that count demonstrates that it found that Mr. Wittig's overt act of submitting his own financial statement was done in furtherance of the conspiracy. There was no evidence that Mr. Weidner was involved in the preparation and submission of that document, and so a conspiracy theory is the only theory on which the jury could have relied in convicting Mr. Weidner of that count. Because the jury necessarily found that Mr. Wittig's submission of his own financial statement was done in furtherance of the conspiracy, there is no risk that the jury relied solely on the allegedly invalid theory that Mr. Wittig committed the violation alleged in count 5 by acting alone as a bank customer. See United States v. Hudgins, 120 F.3d 483, 488 n. 3 (4th Cir. 1997) (noting that Yates requires reversal only where it is impossible to tell that the bad ground was not the sole basis for the verdict (emphasis added) (internal quotation marks omitted)). 103
104 Mr. Wittig next challenges the district court's Pinkerton instruction insofar as it concerned count 5, the § 1005 false bank entry charge that addresses Mr. Wittig's submission of his own financial statement on January 8, 2002. Mr. Wittig argues that, as to that count, no conduct by Mr. Weidner was charged or argued. As a result, Mr. Wittig contends, the district court's Pinkerton instruction improperly allowed Mr. Wittig to be convicted for the conduct of a bank official. 105 Mr. Wittig's § 1005 conviction under count 5 was not based upon the Pinkerton doctrine. That doctrine provides that one conspirator can be found guilty of crimes committed by another conspirator in furtherance of the conspiracy. See Russell, 963 F.2d at 1322. Here, it was Mr. Wittig, not his co-conspirator, who committed the act alleged in count 5 by submitting his own financial statement. As we have noted, bank customers who conspire or aid and abet bank officials may be convicted under § 1005. See, e.g., Copple, 827 F.2d at 1186; Luke, 701 F.2d at 1108; Phillips, 406 F.2d at 601-02. Thus, there is no instructional error here. 106
107 In a final challenge to the jury instructions, Mr. Wittig argues that the district court erred in refusing to give an instruction stating that nominee loans (loans on behalf of a third person) are not per se illegal. 108 We discern no grounds for reversal here. Viewed as a whole, the instructions properly focused the jury on the key issue—whether Mr. Wittig and Mr. Weidner misled Capital City Bank officials. As the government persuasively argues, to have given the jury a simple instruction that nominee loans are not per se illegal would have been an incomplete statement of the law: nominee loans are illegal when the borrower and bank officer make false statements or omit material information in order to obtain the funds. Whether the defendants made such statements and omitted such information was the issue contested here, and Mr. Wittig's per se instruction was not necessary to inform the jury of the relevant legal principles. 109