Opinion ID: 569192
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Proceeds of Specified Unlawful Activity

Text: 43 Section 1956(a)(1) only criminalizes financial transactions involving the proceeds of an unlawful activity specified in section 1956(c)(7), 16 conducted or attempted by a person with knowledge that the proceeds were from some form of unlawful activity, not necessarily one specified in section 1956(c)(7). See supra note 13. 44 There was ample evidence that Isabel well knew that the monies he received from Lemieux in exchange for M.G. Masonry payroll checks represented cocaine trafficking proceeds. First, there was evidence that Lemieux had no legitimate source of income, and appellants have pointed to nothing in the record, nor have we discovered anything, to indicate that Isabel had any basis for believing otherwise. Second, Lemieux actually told Isabel that he sold drugs for a living. Third, as far back as 1983 Isabel had been informed by Lemieux that Lemieux's first cash disbursement to Isabel, in the amount of $19,200, had come from selling drugs. Isabel knew that Lemieux was arrested on drug charges in 1987. On a later occasion, Lemieux told Isabel that Descoteaux sold drugs for him. Given the strength of the evidence that Isabel knew that the monies tendered by Lemieux were drug trafficking proceeds, the jury rationally could have concluded that Isabel intended to conduct financial transactions involving Lemieux's drug proceeds by means of the payroll check scheme. Cf. United States v. Blackman, 904 F.2d 1250, 1257 (8th Cir.1990) (evidence that defendant was engaged in drug trafficking, and had no legitimate source of income, was enough to establish unlawful provenance of funds); United States v. Jackson, 935 F.2d 832, 840 (7th Cir.1991) (unnecessary to trace funds in order to show they were proceeds of specified unlawful activity). 45