Opinion ID: 357403
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Making the Statements.

Text: 13 Lanier first urges that the evidence was insufficient to prove that he made the allegedly false statements. He argues that the statements made on the FNS 250 forms related to the operation of Moneytown as a food stamp vendor, were submitted on behalf of Moneytown and were signed by the defendant only in his capacity as a corporate officer of Moneytown. He contends that any violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001 should have been charged against the corporation rather than the defendant personally. As support for this contention the defendant relies upon United States v. Lange, 528 F.2d 1280, 1288 (5th Cir. 1976), wherein the Fifth Circuit stated: (W)e do not equate a statement issued by and in the name of a corporation with a statement by an individual. In Lange, however, the court qualified its holding with the following caveat: (U)nless there is some evidence from which a jury could reasonably conclude that, at the time of signing this affidavit, Lange knew or should have known it to be false and intended to deceive by making one or both of the statements, a directed verdict of acquittal was required. Id. (emphasis added). The record here shows that Lanier took an active part in operating the business and knew about and participated in the fraud on the government. See United States v. Bass, supra. We therefore conclude that the defendant was properly charged in his individual capacity under the statute. 3 14 Defendant next argues that proof was insufficient that he made the false statements or caused them to be made because the figures on the FNS 250 forms were compiled by the state officials, and his signature alone was insufficient evidence that he made the statements. However, ample evidence established that the defendant knew of the deposit requirements and that he knew that the deposits listed on the forms had not been made. There was direct testimony by the witness Vivian Parker, a former employee of Moneytown, that Lanier had given her directions to make false reports of deposits and to forge false money orders to corroborate those reports. 15 Vivian Parker provided the key testimony establishing the defendant's individual complicity in the crime. After May 1975 she was the Moneytown employee responsible for compilation of the required reports for the food stamp operation. Parker testified that Lanier told her to figure the totals as required for completion of the forms and to prepare copies of money orders reflecting the amounts which should be deposited each day. She was never to actually deposit the funds without permission from the defendant, however. Furthermore, when the state officials came to the Moneytown offices at the end of the month to supervise completion of the FNS 250 forms she was to show them the bogus money order copies when asked about deposits. 16 Parker testified that the defendant told her in May 1975 that a $500,000 float had to be maintained at the United Missouri Bank of Ferguson and that under no circumstances were deposits to be made without his knowledge. Parker also testified that when she informed the defendant in June 1975 that no deposits had been made for May and June of that year he said: The federal government must be farther behind than I expected. They must be at least 60 days behind instead of 30 in auditing. 17 We find that the testimony of witness Parker, if credited by the jury, was sufficient to support the conclusion that the defendant made, or caused to be made, the false statements charged in the indictment. 18 Recognizing that the credibility of witnesses is generally to be determined by the jury, Lanier urges that Parker's testimony was so inconsistent that this court should discredit it as a matter of law under the theory set forth in Mesarosh v. United States, 352 U.S. 1, 77 S.Ct. 1, 1 L.Ed.2d 1 (1956). This is not the first time such an argument has been presented to an appellate court. A similar contention was made in United States v. Tanner, 471 F.2d 128 (7th Cir.), Cert. denied, 409 U.S. 949, 93 S.Ct. 269, 34 L.Ed.2d 220 (1972), where the court stated: 19 Appellate review of credibility is prohibited absent extraordinary circumstances. In Mesarosh v. United States, 352 U.S. 1, 77 S.Ct. 1, 1 L.Ed.2d 1 (1956), the testimony of a government informer was held to have so tainted the proceedings against the defendants as to require a new trial with the challenged testimony excluded. Mesarosh, however, was not dealing with appellate review of a jury's prior determination of credibility. The witness in question was shown to have perjured himself on several occasions subsequent to the trial, information which was obviously unavailable to the jury. Moreover, it was the Government who raised the challenge to the credibility of its own witness. In Hoffa v. United States, 385 U.S. 293, 87 S.Ct. 408, 17 L.Ed.2d 394 (1966), a case more directly in point, the Court rejected the claim that the testimony of the principal government witness be held incredible as a matter of law, even where the witness was a paid informer who had contacted the Government while in prison, received clemency for his services and then ingratiated himself to the defendant in order to report on defendant's activities. The Court concluded that, however strong this informer's motives to lie may have been, (t)he established safeguards of the Anglo-American legal system leave the veracity of a witness to be tested by cross-examination, and the credibility of his testimony to be determined by a properly instructed jury. 385 U.S. at 311, 87 S.Ct. 408. 20 Id. at 135-36 (footnote omitted). 21 In United States v. Miles, 472 F.2d 1145, 1146-47 (8th Cir.), Cert. denied, 412 U.S. 907, 93 S.Ct. 2299, 36 L.Ed.2d 972 (1973), this court observed that the credibility of witnesses is to be determined by the jury, even where strong impeaching testimony has been presented. See also United States v. May, 419 F.2d 553, 554-55 (8th Cir. 1969). 22 All the weaknesses in the testimony of Parker cited by the defendant were pointed out to the jury in an extensive cross-examination. Furthermore, certain key parts of Parker's testimony were corroborated by other witnesses. 4 23 We thus conclude that the testimony of Vivian Parker created a jury question as to the defendant's complicity in the crime charged, and was sufficient to support a finding that he made the statements or caused them to be made. 24