Opinion ID: 2977642
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Akram and Rashid

Text: 20 Akram and Rashid both challenge their convictions for conspiracy to defraud the United States, RICO conspiracy, and for submitting false information on their income tax returns. Akram and Rashid concede the existence of the conspiracies, but challenge their convictions on the ground that they did not know about or join into them. In this regard, they place great emphasis on the fact that, unlike Abrar, they were not trained accountants and did not give independent accounting advice. Evidence of Akram’s knowledge of and participation in the conspiracies is overwhelming. Among other things, during his time at the firm, Akram prepared false pay stubs for Marwan Mustafa and, in a recorded conversation, discussed not wanting to “get caught”; prepared false income documents for Hani Otallah and later discussed the misstatements in a recorded conversation with Abrar; took an order for false pay stubs from Ameed Abuzahrieh; produced an amended tax return with inflated numbers to help Shadi Faraj secure a bank loan; and discussed producing false pay stubs for Hatem Idies so that she could qualify for certain medical benefits. The evidence presented at trial also supported the government’s contention that Rashid knew about and actively participated in the conspiracies. A former coworker testified that Rashid handled the payment of city taxes and assisted in matters with the Al Ihsan School. The evidence at trial demonstrated that, in each capacity, Rashid had knowledge of the firm’s illicit activity. During two recorded conversations between Rashid and Abrar, Rashid discussed underreporting clients’ sales figures in order to lessen the amount they owed in local sales tax. The government also presented evidence that Rashid delivered fraudulent “split” paychecks to employees at the Al Ihsan School. To minimize the amount of official payroll and thereby lessen payroll tax, school employees were given two paychecks: a computer-generated, official paycheck that would ultimately be reported, and a handwritten, unofficial paycheck that would not. Aside from his work with city taxes and the 21 school, Rashid was recorded having numerous conversations about the production of false pay stubs, which betrayed his knowledge of the criminal enterprise. On these facts, the record is certainly not “devoid of evidence pointing to guilt” relative to Akram and Rashid’s knowledge and participation in the two conspiracies. See Price, 134 F.3d at 350. As to the tax charges, Abrar and Rahsid concede the existence of various errors on their personal income tax returns but maintain that they were merely innocent mistakes of omission or misunderstanding, and not of the “willful” variety that render such errors criminal. These claims are wholly unsupported by explanation or argument in their briefs on appeal. For the tax years 2001 through 2003, Akram filed as head-of-household and took dependent exemptions and related credits for Abrar’s daughter. For the tax years 2000, 2001, 2003, and 2004, Akram underreported his wages from the firm by $6,578, $4,804, $6,892, and $2,239, respectively. What is more, under the terms of his limited religious worker visa, Rashid was prohibited from maintaining any employment in the United States other than the religious work contemplated by the visa (here, teaching at the Al Ihsan School). To hide the source of what little of the firm’s income he did report, Rashid disguised the money by declaring it on a Schedule C form which stated he was merely a clergyman.