Opinion ID: 77737
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Second embezzlement count

Text: In challenging the embezzlement conviction that was based on his personal charges on the YMCA's American Express card, Tampas argues that the government failed to prove that the charges were improper, the government failed to prove that he was the individual who made the allegedly improper charges, and the summary charts put together by FBI Analyst Lockhart cannot support his conviction because they never should have been admitted under Fed.R.Evid. 1006. We reject Tampas's argument that the government produced insufficient evidence that he converted the requisite amount of funds. Tampas argues that his charges were proper under the bona fide salary exception of 18 U.S.C. § 666(c), where YMCA board members and employees testified that Tampas was expected to use the card for travel expenses and to purchase things like food for large-scale YMCA events and ordinary business meetings. However, the testimony of these employees and board members does not show that the charge account was part of Tampas's salary under 18 U.S.C. § 666(c); salary is a budgetary matter for official vote of the board, and Tampas produced no evidence that the board voted to give him a YMCA American Express account to use for personal expenses as part of his compensation package. Tampas also argues that no reasonable juror could find his charges improper where the charges had been classified under various categories of the YMCA budget, and the YMCA's auditor testified that the expenditures were within budgetary limits. That the expenditures were within the budget means little, because even over-budget expenditures would not have constituted embezzlement as long as they were for YMCA business rather than Tampas's personal use. By the same token, unauthorized personal expenditures do not become proper just because they are susceptible of classification within budgetary limits. A reasonable juror could have concluded that Tampas's position of control over the YMCA's finances allowed him to disguise personal charges as business expenditures within the YMCA budget so that his use of the credit card would not raise any alarms. Next, Tampas argues that the government failed to prove he was the person who made the allegedly improper charges, citing a YMCA board member's testimony that multiple people used each YMCA card, Lockhart's testimony that some of the charging activity on the card was consistent with use by more than one person, and evidence that no one reviewed the charge slips to verify that Tampas signed them. We conclude that the government produced sufficient evidence to allow a reasonable juror to conclude that Tampas was responsible for the improper charges, where witnesses testified that Tampas used the card, the statements were addressed to him, and in an FBI interview he admitted that he used the card to make $5,000 to $6,000 in personal purchases. The evidence is sufficient to support Tampas's second embezzlement conviction without regard to Lockhart's summary charts of the improper charges, and we reject Tampas's contention that he was improperly convicted in a trial by charts, see United States v. Richardson, 233 F.3d 1285, 1293 (11th Cir.2000).