Opinion ID: 20108
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Braugh

Text: Braugh challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conspiracy, interstate transportation, wire fraud, and mail fraud convictions. We uphold the convictions on all six counts.
Braugh was convicted of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 371. “To establish a violation of [section 371], the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt (1) that two or more people agreed to pursue an unlawful objective, (2) that the defendant voluntarily agreed to join in the conspiracy, and (3) that one or more members of the conspiracy committed an overt act to further the objectives of the conspiracy.” United States v. Soape, 169 F.3d 257, 264 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 119 S. Ct. 2353 (1999). “To be guilty of conspiracy to commit mail [and wire] fraud, [the defendant] must have had the requisite intent to commit mail [and wire] fraud.” United States v. Sneed, 63 F.3d 381, 385 (5th Cir. 1995). Neither “[m]ail fraud [nor wire fraud], however, has [a] specific intent requirement regarding use of the mails [or wire facilities].” Id. (quoting United States v. Massey, 827 F.2d 995, 53 1002 (5th Cir. 1987)). “The test to determine whether a defendant caused the mails [or interstate wire facilities] to be used is whether the use was reasonably foreseeable. The defendant need not intend to cause the mails [or wire facilities] to be used.” Sneed, 63 F.3d at 385 (quoting Massey, 827 F.2d at 1002). “The government’s burden, therefore, is to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that [the alleged conspirators] agreed to engage in a scheme to defraud in which they contemplated that the [wire facilities] would likely be used.” Sneed, 63 F.3d at 385 (quoting Massey, 827 F.2d at 1002). Braugh contends that the evidence was not sufficient to permit a reasonable jury to conclude that he was a party to a conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud. At most, he claims, the evidence shows that the defendants participated in a failed business together, not that they agreed to commit a crime. Braugh points out that he was not present when either Schwinger or Hayes signed contracts to invest in the roll program. The lack of direct evidence of agreement to commit a crime does not require reversal. Each element of a section 371 conspiracy may be inferred from circumstantial evidence. See United States v. Faulkner, 17 F.3d 745, 768 (5th Cir. 1994). Concert of action can indicate an agreement. See United States v. Lopez, 979 F.2d 1024, 1029 (5th Cir. 1992). The record contains ample circumstantial evidence to support Braugh’s conspiracy conviction. Braugh and others induced Hayes, Schwinger, and Blackwelder to part with their money and in lulling them into continued belief that their money was safely invested. The bank 54 records showed that nearly all Hayes’s money was moved from Braugh’s Shearson Lehman account within one month of deposit and transferred to accounts in the defendants’ names at different banks, including Braugh’s accounts. Most of the money Schwinger invested was also transferred from a Shearson Lehman account to accounts held by Richards, Braugh, and Latrasse, within a short time. The evidence showed the defendants’ coordinated acts to implement their fraudulent scheme, including the use of the mails and wire facilities to distribute the proceeds of the fraud and to lull the investors as they grew anxious about their money. In light of the other evidence in the record, the jury was free to disbelieve Braugh’s self-serving testimony that he thought the “roll program” was a legitimate investment. See United States v. Brown, 186 F.3d 661, 667 (5th Cir. 1999); United States v. Ruiz, 860 F.2d 615, 619 (5th Cir. 1988). The evidence was sufficient to permit a reasonable jury to find that Braugh conspired to commit wire and mail fraud.
Braugh argues that there is no evidence that he, rather than Richards, induced Hayes to travel from Arkansas to Texas with the $250,000 check. The interstate transportation element “is merely the linchpin for federal jurisdiction and bears no relationship, in terms of culpability, to the underlying criminal acts which are the objects of [section] 2314.” United States v. Kelly, 569 F.2d 928, 934 (5th Cir. 1978) (quoting United States v. Ludwig, 523 F.2d 705, 707 (8th Cir. 1975)). The government need not prove that Braugh 55 knew that Hayes would travel in interstate commerce. See Kelly, 569 F.2d at 934. Indeed, the government need not show that Braugh directly caused Hayes to travel across state lines. See id. at 934–35. It is enough if Braugh “was a motivating force in the transportation.” Id. at 935 (quoting Thogmartin v. United States, 313 F.2d 589 (8th Cir. 1963)). In Kelly, this court upheld a section 2314 interstate transportation conviction over a sufficiency of the evidence challenge. The defendant had devised a scheme to sell shares in a nonexistent mutual fund. He sold shares in the fund to an individual, who in turn transferred them to a third party. As part of the transaction, the immediate and secondary purchasers met in the Bahamas. This travel provided the interstate transportation element of the original seller’s section 2314 conviction. The court held that the original seller was a “motivating force” in the ultimate buyer’s interstate travel, despite the fact that it was the original buyer who induced the ultimate buyer to make the trip. In this case, although Richards persuaded Hayes to cross state lines to deliver his roll program check, Braugh’s involvement in the roll program made him a “motivating force” in Hayes’s travel. The evidence sufficed to permit a reasonable jury to find that Braugh violated section 2314.
Braugh was convicted of three counts of wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1343. His limited claim on appeal is that because there was insufficient evidence to show that he knowingly participated in a scheme to defraud, there was also insufficient evidence to 56 support his wire fraud convictions. The same record evidence that led to the rejection of Braugh’s sufficiency of the evidence challenge to his conspiracy conviction also leads this court to reject Braugh’s challenge to the wire fraud convictions.
Count 6 of the indictment charged Braugh with mail fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1341, based on Braugh’s November 22, 1993 letter to Blackwelder, promising to send a cashier’s check to repay the $5,000 “loan.” Braugh argues that there was insufficient evidence to show that he participated in a scheme to defraud. The argument is without merit.