Opinion ID: 57320
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: cac

Text: The architectural firm of Coker, Anderton & Cosper (“CAC”) provided services for HVF and for various Community Bank projects. In early 1998, when CAC was first approached by Patterson and Bishop to work on HVF and Community Bank projects, CAC set up separate billing numbers and separately invoiced the work it performed for HVF and Community Bank. However, Wesley Anderton, one of the principals of CAC, testified that in May 1998, CAC was instructed by defendant Bishop to combine all work for HVF and Community Bank on one invoice. CAC complied with Bishop’s directive, although Anderton testified that CAC found Bishop’s request “rather strange.” As such, CAC began to combine its charges for HVF and Community Bank on one invoice as directed by Bishop, but CAC persisted in submitting cover sheets in which the charges were separated by each job. 11 Bishop then removed the explanatory sheets from the invoices, approved them, and submitted them to Community Bank for payment.5 The government submitted evidence that Community Bank paid approximately $35,000 in charges for CAC work on HVF projects between May 1998 and November 1998. In approximately November 1998, at Bishop’s request, CAC began to provide separate invoices for Community Bank and HVF work. Bishop also asked CAC to provide a separate breakdown of costs incurred on Community Bank and HVF projects between May 1998 and November 1998. Anderton testified that Bishop told CAC that the original, lump-sum billing arrangement had been a “mistake.” By approximately March 1999, the money originally paid by Community Bank for CAC work at HVF had been refunded to the Bank. However, the government presented evidence that in approximately November 1998—i.e., at the same time Bishop instructed CAC to ignore his original lump-sum billing directive and to start separating HVF and Community Bank charges again—certain Bancshares stockholders threatened and then filed a shareholder derivative lawsuit. This lawsuit, known as the “Townes litigation,” questioned the general manner in which Community Bank funds were being spent. 5 Occasionally, the combined invoices would contain relatively small charges that were specifically attributed to miscellaneous expenses incurred at HVF. Bishop paid those amounts by separate check; the government’s theory is that Bishop did this “so as not to arouse suspicion by Community Bank’s accounts payable department.” 12 William Caughren, who was the general counsel of Community Bank in 1998, testified that he met with Patterson and Bishop in November or December 1998 to discuss the Townes litigation. According to Caughren, during that meeting, Patterson said to Bishop that “the next thing that . . . Townes would raise a concern about was the building of [Patterson’s] house.” Caughren further testified that Bishop agreed with Patterson, and that Caughren then assisted Patterson “in draft[ing] some statements for the contractors to sign, stating that they were keeping the two projects [i.e., HVF work and Community Bank work] separate.”