Opinion ID: 755643
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Unlawful Monetary Transactions

Text: 9 Hawkey challenges the sufficiency of evidence supporting his conviction on eight counts of unlawful monetary transactions under 18 U.S.C. § 1957. Section 1957 prohibits anyone from knowingly engaging 'in a monetary transaction in criminally derived property that is of a value greater than $10,000 and is derived from specified unlawful activity.'  United States v. Hare, 49 F.3d 447, 451 (8th Cir.1995) (quoting 18 U.S.C. § 1957(a)). We believe that Hare correctly states the law and note that, in order to obtain a conviction under § 1957, the government is not required to prove that Hawkey knew that the offense from which the criminally derived property was derived was specified unlawful activity. 18 U.S.C. § 1957(c). Section 1956(c)(7)(A) defines specified unlawful activity for the purposes of § 1957 as an offense listed in 18 U.S.C. § 1961(1), which includes mail fraud. 18 U.S.C. § 1956(c)(7)(A). See 18 U.S.C. § 1961(1)(B). See also § 1957(f)(3) (adopting the definition of specified unlawful activity provided in § 1956). After a careful review of the record and in light of our discussion of Hawkey's mail fraud conviction, we conclude that a reasonable jury could have found that Hawkey knowingly engaged in a monetary transaction in criminally derived property that was of a value greater than $10,000 and was derived from specified unlawful activity. 10