Opinion ID: 499793
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: government's cross-appeal; 18 u.s.c. secs. 2 and 1001

Text: 26 Finally, the government has cross-appealed on the district court's decision to grant the defendant's motion for a judgment of acquittal on count II. This count charged the defendant with concealing a material fact in violation of 18 U.S.C. Secs. 2 and 1001. The government alleged that by concealing from the Mercantile Bank the fact that the funds deposited into the Farmers and Merchants correspondent account were personal in nature, Shannon caused Mercantile to fail to file a CTR. The district court dismissed the count, reasoning that the government failed to present sufficient evidence to support a conviction. We agree. 27 To establish a concealment violation of section 1001, the government must prove more than just a passive failure on the part of the defendant to reveal a material fact. Rather, the government must prove an affirmative act by which a material fact is actively concealed. See United States v. Ford, 797 F.2d 1329, 1334 (5th Cir.1986), reh'g granted, 811 F.2d 268 (5th Cir.), vacated in part on other grounds, 824 F.2d 1430 (5th Cir.1987); United States v. London, 550 F.2d 206, 212-13 (5th Cir.1977). Here, while the evidence did show that Shannon knew about the deposit and its personal nature, there was no evidence that the defendant took affirmative steps to conceal these facts from Mercantile. As the district court explained, the government offered no evidence that the defendant made out the deposit slip himself or caused it to be made. Likewise, while the teller who received the deposit testified that she remembers Shannon and one other Farmers and Merchants employee as the only persons who made cash deposits into the Farmers and Merchants correspondent account, she also said that she could not remember who made the $120,000.00 deposit on October 25, 1978. We agree with the district court that such evidence is not sufficient to sustain a conviction under section 1001. The court believes that this matter is of the type envisioned by the Supreme Court in United States v. Woodward, 469 U.S. 105, 105 S.Ct. 611, 83 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985), where the Court explained that factual situations could arise which support a conviction under the currency transaction reporting laws yet fail to meet the requirements of section 1001. Id. at 108, 105 S.Ct. at 612. Shannon's conduct in this case, as proven by the government, amounts only to passive acquiescence in the wrongful deposit. While sufficient to support liability under 31 U.S.C. Sec. 1058, such conduct is insufficient to support a conviction under section 1001. The government's cross-appeal, is, therefore, without merit.