Opinion ID: 547455
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the forfeiture verdicts

Text: The trial court charged the jury: 65 If, and only if, you should find any one or more of the defendants guilty of RICO, should you [sic] list on the verdict form, in the space provided, the numbers of all the racketeering acts that you have unanimously agreed that particular defendant committed in reaching the verdict. You are not required to consider all of the racketeering acts but you may consider more than two and, if you wish, all of them. 66 The jury listed on the verdict form racketeering acts relating to only 11 of the 23 properties. The appellants therefore asked the court to instruct the jury that it could order forfeiture of the proceeds relating only to those 11 properties. The court refused, and the jury's special verdict required the appellants to forfeit amounts equal to the proceeds that the appellants acknowledged deriving from all 23 properties. 67 The appellants claim that their forfeitures should be reduced to reflect only the proceeds from the 11 properties that the jury identified on the verdict form. Contrary to the appellants' assertion, however, the scope of their RICO enterprise is not necessarily limited to the 11 properties that the jury specifically indicated in its substantive RICO verdict. The district court correctly instructed the jury that it could convict the appellants under RICO without considering whether they committed every predicate act. The jury did undoubtedly conclude, however, that the appellants committed racketeering acts relating to all 23 properties; this is the only inference we can draw from its reaching a guilty verdict on at least one substantive count relating to each property and in light of the district court's instruction. We therefore uphold the decision to order forfeiture of the proceeds from all of the properties. 68 We also reject Friedman's separate challenge to the verdict insofar as it requires him to forfeit some of the proceeds from the sale of a property known as the Monroe Street Joint Venture. The only connection between the Monroe Street property and this case is that Friedman made a down payment on that property with two $5,000 checks drawn on an escrow account in which, from time to time, he deposited illicit proceeds from his racketeering activities; it was not one of the 23 properties acquired as part of the defendants' illegal scheme. The Government nevertheless sought forfeiture of all of the assets derived from proceeds of the sale of the Monroe Street property on the grounds that they constitute an interest ... acquired or maintained in violation of [RICO], 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1963(a)(1), and that they are property constituting, or derived from, any proceeds ... obtained, directly or indirectly, from racketeering activity, id. Sec. 1963(a)(3). The jury's verdict required the forfeiture of some, but not all, of the identified assets meeting one of these statutory criteria. 69 Friedman attacks the forfeiture verdict on two grounds, both of which go, at bottom, to the sufficiency of the evidence. First, he asserts that the $10,000 that he invested in the Monroe Street property could not have been the proceeds of his racketeering activity because, at the time the checks were drawn, the escrow account had a negative balance. The apparent lack of funds in the account at the moments that the checks were written is not dispositive, however. There was evidence that Friedman deposited illicit proceeds of his racketeering activities into the account six days after the first check was written, and before it cleared the bank. The jury could rationally conclude, therefore, that Friedman used the illicit proceeds that he deposited into the escrow account to cover the two $5,000 checks, and therefore that Friedman used racketeering proceeds to acquire the Monroe Street property. 70 Friedman's second argument is that the jury had no legal basis for bifurcating the assets derived from the Monroe Street property, i.e., for ordering forfeiture of only some of those assets. We note first that, since Friedman used RICO proceeds to pay for only part of the Monroe Street property, it is not irrational for the jury to conclude that only part of the funds derived from the sale of that property trace to the illicit source of the purchase money. In any event, it is well-settled that a court should not upset a jury's verdict merely because it may be inconsistent. United States v. Powell, 469 U.S. 57, 105 S.Ct. 471, 83 L.Ed.2d 461 (1984). We see no reason why that rule should not apply as well in the context of a verdict of forfeiture; nor have other courts, see, e.g., United States v. Williams, 809 F.2d 1072, 1097 (5th Cir.1987).