Opinion ID: 760199
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Was The Evidence Sufficient To Convict Wells On Counts

Text: 47 2 and 6-11? 48 Wells has contended that there was insufficient evidence to convict him on Counts 2 and 6-11, which are various counts of fraud and conspiracy, including bank fraud. Specifically, Wells was charged with mail fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1341 (Count 2), conspiracy to commit bank fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1344 (Counts 6, 7 and 10), conspiracy to transport stolen property in interstate commerce under 18 U.S.C.s 2314 (Counts 8 and 9), and corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the due administration of IRS laws under 26 U.S.C. § 7212 (Count 11). As with his challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence for the other counts, the reviewing court draws all reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the government, Dorlouis, 107 F.3d at 256 (citation omitted), and affirms the conviction if there is substantial evidence, taking the view most favorable to the government, to support it. Id. 49 The counts center around Wells' use of comptroller warrants--documents passed by Wells as payment instruments--which were, in fact, worthless. Wells' central argument is that he did not have the specific intent to defraud anyone in using the warrants and that he acted in good faith. Since mail fraud requires knowledge or intent, see 18 U.S.C. § 1341 (Whoever, having devised, or intending to devise...); 18 U.S.C. § 1344 (Whoever knowingly executes ...), he claims that he is not guilty of these charges. 50 Wells supports his argument by pointing to several items in the record. First, he argues that he never admitted that he believed that the warrants were worthless. Second, if he did believe that they were invalid, he would not have sent them to the IRS, nor later admitted that he did. Third, some banks accepted the warrants, and could not at first glance tell that they were invalid. Fourth, Leroy Schweitzer, one of the leaders of the Freemen, distributed the warrants with proof packages, designed to help users demonstrate the validity of the warrants. Schweitzer also told Wells that the banks' rejection of the documents would result from their own ignorance, not the validity of the warrants. 51 Despite those facts, however, there is ample evidence to convict Wells. First, proof of actual knowledge is not necessary if the defendant was willfully blind. See United States v. Withers, 100 F.3d 1142, 1145 (4th Cir.1996), cert. denied, 520 U.S. 1132, 117 S.Ct. 1282, 137 L.Ed.2d 358 (1997). The fact of the warrants' worthlessness was not one to avoid. Second, the government has pointed to the series of seminars conducted by Schweitzer and the Freemen (during which several bizarre theories were raised) and asserts that Wells heard them and had reason to believe that the warrants would be invalid. Third, Schweitzer told the seminar attendees that they should prepare to be arrested and that banks often rejected warrants. Fourth, and perhaps most amazing, the first five warrants cost Wells $100 (each one thereafter was $100 apiece), and one of the warrants alone had a face value of $3.7 million. Finally, Wells generally did not distribute them himself but distributed them through third parties. 52 Since there appears to have been substantial evidence that Wells either knew of the fraudulent character of the warrants, or deliberately ignored obvious signs that they were invalid, his conviction of the above counts should stand. 53