Opinion ID: 29550
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Goldberg: Money Laundering

Text: For his role in the conspiracy, Goldberg was also convicted of conspiracy to money launder in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h). The substantive offense of money laundering requires that the defendant knew that the funds in question represented the proceeds of unlawful activity. See United States v. Burns, 162 F.3d 840, 847 (5th Cir. 1998). Goldberg maintains that since he did not know that Bieganowski’s clinics were submitting fraudulent claims, he could not have known that the funds deposited into the various clinic accounts represented the proceeds of unlawful activity, and that he therefore cannot be found guilty of money laundering. Because we find that the evidence supports the conclusion that Goldberg was aware that the reimbursements from the insurance companies represented the proceeds of fraudulent billing practices, see section II(B)(2), supra, we reject this argument. Finally, we address Goldberg’s claim that the Government failed to prove that the funds transferred to the Cayman Islands in 24 fact represented the proceeds of unlawful activity. In this case, the indictment charged a conspiracy to commit two types of money laundering: (1) engaging in a financial transaction designed to conceal the source or control of the proceeds of unlawful activity in violation of section 1956(a)(1)(B)(i), and (2) transporting or attempting to transport funds from a place in the United States to a place outside the United States in order to conceal the source or control of the proceeds of unlawful activity, in violation of section 1956(a)(2)(B)(i). The offense of money laundering under section 1956(a)(1)(B)(i), requires that the government prove that the defendant: (1) conducted or attempted to conduct a financial transaction, (2) that the defendant knew involved the proceeds of unlawful activity, and (3) that the defendant knew was designed to conceal or disguise the nature, location, source, ownership, or control of the proceeds of the unlawful activity. 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(B)(i); United States v. Burns, 162 F.3d 840, 847 (5th Cir. 1998), cert. denied, August v. United States, 119 S.Ct. 1477 (1999). An offense under section 1956(a)(2)(B)(i) is almost identical, with the exception that the transaction in question must be from a place in the United Sates to a place outside the United States. See 18 U.S.C.A. § 1956(a)(2)(B)(i). 25 Agent Hivic of the IRS testified that between November, 1994,12 and January, 1997, over six million dollars of insurance company reimbursements were deposited in the various clinics’ accounts. All of that six million dollars was then transferred from the clinics’ accounts at the Bank of the West to the Servicio account, also located at the Bank of the West. Of that six million dollars, a little over two million was eventually transferred to the Cayman Islands. Goldberg’s argument proceeds from the premise that the Government failed to prove that all of Dr. Bieganowski’s billings were fraudulent. If some billings were legitimate, then at least some of the money that was deposited into the clinic accounts at the Bank of the West and then consolidated in the Servicio account was also legitimate. Consequently, Goldberg maintains that the Government never established that Bieganowski earned less than two million dollars through legitimate billing and that the Government cannot, therefore, prove that the funds transferred to the Cayman Islands were the proceeds of fraudulent activity. The government maintains that it produced sufficient evidence that all the funds deposited to the Servicio account–and certainly more than four million dollars thereof–were the product of fraudulent billings. The government also argues that if some funds in the Servicio 12 November, 1994, represents the date on which Goldberg consolidated Dr. Bieganowski’s billing operations in Servicio, a Mexican corporation located in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. 26 account were legitimate their commingling with illegitimate funds there allows treatment of the Cayman Island funds as illegitimate. Accepting, arguendo, Goldberg’s position as valid—that the Government failed to establish that the funds transferred to the Cayman Islands were illegitimate—this failure does not undermine Goldberg’s conviction. The Government charged Goldberg with a conspiracy to violate both section 1956(a)(1)(B)(i) and (a)(2)(B)(i), and the jury charge authorized conviction upon either theory.13 Goldberg’s argument concerning the funds transferred to the Cayman Islands, if valid, would only undermines a conviction based on a conspiracy to commit money laundering under section 1956(a)(2)(B)(i), laundering by transferring illegitimate funds out of the United States. The evidence to support a conviction for section 1956(a)(1)(B)(i), on the other hand, was more than sufficient. The indictment and the jury charge include a series of overt acts tracing the entire money laundering operation, including the transfer of funds involving the proceeds of unlawful activity from the clinics’ accounts at the Bank of the West to Servicio’s bank account. That transfer to Servicio alone satisfies the requirements of section 1956(a)(1)(B)(i). The entire six million dollars deposited into the clinics’ accounts was thereafter transferred to the Servicio account. Therefore, even assuming that 13 No objection to the change on this basis has been raised on appeal. 27 the Government only proved that a portion of those six million dollars represented the proceeds of fraudulent activity, the prosecution nevertheless satisfied its burden of demonstrating that the transfer involved the proceeds of specified unlawful activity. See 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1). There is also little doubt that the transfers from the clinics’ accounts to the Servicio account were designed to conceal the source of the unlawful funds. A casual observer would not have immediately linked the contents of the Servicio account to Bieganowski as neither Dr. Bieganowski nor Goldberg were listed as shareholders (or officers or directors or authorized agents or account signatories) of Servicio. See United States v. Willey, 57 F.3d 1374, 1387–89 (5th Cir. 1995) (noting that a transfer from one third party to another supports an inference of a design to conceal). Because the jury could have convicted Goldberg for conspiracy to violate 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(B)(i), and because the evidence supports a finding that the transfers from the clinic’s accounts to Servicio involved the proceeds of unlawful activity and were designed to conceal the source of those proceeds, we hold that the evidence is adequate to sustain Goldberg’s conviction for conspiracy to money launder.