Opinion ID: 814677
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Defendants’ Count Three Convictions for

Text: Conspiracy to Transport Stolen Money Conviction for conspiracy to violate § 2314, count three, requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Defendants agreed to move at least $5000 into the United States while “knowing the same to have been stolen, converted or taken by fraud.” 18 U.S.C. § 2314. The count three conspiracy also requires at least one overt act in furtherance of the agreement. 18 U.S.C. § 371. We review de novo Defendants’ challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, and we make all inferences in favor of the government. Defendants raise essentially the same challenge to their count three convictions as they did regarding their count two convictions—namely, that the government cannot trace the Las Vegas casino transactions to the Bank of China fraud. Their arguments fail under the same analysis as discussed above. Conspiracy is an inchoate offense that centers upon the agreement to commit an unlawful act, not the commission of the unlawful act itself. Cruz, 127 F.3d at 803. Therefore, this case is distinguishable from United States v. Lazarenko, in which we reversed a conviction because the substantive § 2314 charge requires that the transferred money be directly traceable to the underlying fraud. 564 F.3d 1026, 1042 (9th Cir. 2009). 28 UNITED STATES V . XU We affirm Defendants’ count three convictions here because evidence in the record, summarized above, supports a finding that Defendants agreed to commit the acts prohibited by § 2314. Through the testimony of Zhendong, forensic accounting experts, and Defendants’ false spouses, the government introduced evidence sufficient to allow a rational juror to find that Defendants reached an agreement to steal large sums of money from the Bank of China and to use that money, channeled through Ever Joint accounts, in the United States.