Opinion ID: 151175
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sutton’s Appeal

Text: Sutton argues that the evidence adduced at trial was insufficient as a matter of law to support his conviction. This court reviews de novo a district court’s denial of a motion for judgment of acquittal that challenges the sufficiency of the evidence. United States v. Keeton, 101 F.3d 48, 52 (6th Cir. 1996) (citing United States v. Gibson, 896 F.2d 206, 209 (6th Cir. 1990)). To ascertain whether Sutton has a valid sufficiency of evidence claim, this court must decide “whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Id. at 52 (quoting 4 Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 (1979)) (internal quotation marks omitted). The jury’s verdict will stand unless it “is not supported by substantial and competent evidence upon the record as a whole.” United States v. Campbell, 549 F.3d 364, 374 (6th Cir. 2008) (citing United States v. Grubbs, 506 F.3d 434, 438 (6th Cir. 2007)). When making this inquiry, all reasonable inferences and credibility choices are made in support of the verdict. Id. (citing United States v. Newsom, 452 F.3d 593, 608 (6th Cir. 2006)). The elements of structuring are as follows: (1) the defendant must, in fact, have engaged in acts of structuring; (2) he must have done so with knowledge that the financial institutions involved were legally obligated to report currency transactions in excess of $10,000; and (3) he must have acted with the intent to evade this reporting requirement. United States v. MacPherson, 424 F.3d 183, 189 (2d Cir. 2005); see also United States v. One Million Seven Hundred Thousand Dollars ($1,700,000.00) in U.S. Currency, 545 F. Supp. 2d 645, 651-52 (E.D. Mich. 2008). Sutton appeals the sufficiency of evidence with respect to three elements needed for conviction: knowledge of the reporting requirement, intent to evade the reporting requirement, and the involvement of a domestic financial institution.
Sutton contends that the Government did not establish his “knowledge” of a conspiracy to structure currency transactions to evade reporting requirements. Sutton’s argument fails, however, because the Government presented ample circumstantial evidence at trial to support its theory that Sutton had knowledge of the conspiracy. See United States v. Johnson, 26 F. App’x 441, 446 (6th Cir. 2001) (referring to circumstantial evidence to hold that the prosecution presented sufficient evidence to support the knowledge element of the money laundering statute). For example, Shirk 5 testified that Sutton had instructed him to keep cash transactions below $10,000. IRS Special Agent George Muench testified that when he asked Sutton, during another investigation in the 1990s that preceded this case, why he used checks in the amount of about $9,800, Sutton answered “it was easier.” Charles Rice, Sutton’s accountant during an unrelated IRS audit, testified that he believed Sutton had a “good understanding” of the financial reporting requirements based on his interactions with him during the audit. Finally, comments in the admitted wiretapped conversations suggested that Sutton knew about the financial reporting requirements. For instance, in one conversation, taped by Ron Bowen, the following exchange occurred: Rennie Turner: Long as you didn’t write any under ten thousand dollars, ain’t no, ain’t against the law is it? Sutton: They always come up with somethin’ called structuring, but they, there’s a