Opinion ID: 530523
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: impropriety of venue in the district of columbia

Text: 21 Finotti's bribery conviction must also be reversed, because under the controlling precedent of this circuit, venue for bribery lies only in a district in which the defendant committed unlawful acts and is not proper in a district where only the effects of the crime occur. This rule was established in United States v. Swann, 441 F.2d 1053 (D.C.Cir.1971), which held that venue in a prosecution for attempting to intimidate or influence a witness, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1503 (1964), did not lie in the District of Columbia, where the witness whom the defendant had attempted to influence would testify, but lay only in the district where the attempt to influence was made. 3 The differences between the crime charged in Swann and the bribery charge in this case do not admit of a legal distinction sufficient to justify this panel's departure from Swann. 22 No acts necessary to establish the crime of bribery occurred in the District of Columbia. Finotti and White agreed to the consulting arrangement in discussions held in North Carolina and Virginia. The payments were mailed from North Carolina to Finotti's home in Maryland, where he deposited them in his local account. 4 The crime is completed upon the public officer's receipt or agreement to receive payments for an official act. See 18 U.S.C. Sec. 201(c) (1982). Although Finotti committed many official acts in the District of Columbia, proof that he was actually influenced in any such acts is not an element of the bribery offense. See United States v. Brewster, 408 U.S. 501, 526, 92 S.Ct. 2531, 2544, 33 L.Ed.2d 507 (1972). Thus, under Swann, venue was not proper in the District of Columbia, and Finotti's conviction for bribery must be reversed. 23