Opinion ID: 480407
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Ostrer's and Wuagneux's claims of insufficient evidence

Text: 30 Ostrer and Wuagneux also assert claims of insufficiency of the evidence. Both appellants are in a slightly different position from the other appellants because they are not officers of or representatives to either the Local or the International Union. Instead, they operated outside of the Union in setting up and operating conduit corporations for funneling the kickback money to the other appellants. Both Ostrer and Wuagneux admit that DVCC made substantial payments to corporations they controlled, but they contend that the evidence did not establish that the payments had anything to do with the kickback scheme. We reject their claims. 31 Ostrer contends that the only evidence tying him into the kickback scheme was the unreliable hearsay testimony of Milano, Jr., to the effect that Ostrer's company, SAEFA, acted as a conduit for kickback payments and that it never performed the service it purportedly was being paid to provide. The credibility and weight of properly admissible evidence 19 is for the jury to decide, however, and the jury could reasonably find based on Milano's testimony that Ostrer participated in the kickback scheme. Furthermore, Milano, Jr.'s testimony was not the only evidence linking the payments to SAEFA with the conspiracy. Hauser also testified that Ostrer and Wuagneux had told him that they were laundering kickback money. In addition, the circumstantial evidence surrounding the payments to SAEFA, such as the amount of the payments and the pattern of successor conduit corporations, supports a finding that Ostrer was implicated in the scheme. United States v. Mosquera, 779 F.2d 628, 630 (11th Cir.1986); United States v. Jenkins, supra, 779 F.2d at 610. 32 Wuagneux makes essentially the same argument, claiming insufficiency of the evidence because of the unreliability of Milano, Jr.'s and Hauser's testimony and the lack of any evidence beyond that testimony establishing that his joint venture project, Drake Towers, was used in furtherance of the kickback scheme. Again, it was within the jury's province to give whatever credibility and weight they thought appropriate to the testimony of both witnesses, and based on that testimony the jury could reasonably find that Wuagneux participated in the scheme. As with Ostrer, the circumstantial evidence surrounding the payments to Drake Towers is consistent with the government's theory of the case. 20