Opinion ID: 520592
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Counts Six, Seven and Eight

Text: 26 Pervez contends that, under Mathews, he is entitled to a new trial to allow a jury to consider his evidence of entrapment on the false documentation charges. Pervez did not request a jury instruction on entrapment for Counts Six, Seven and Eight because he had not admitted the elements of those offenses under the pre-Mathews rule. Under Mathews, we would grant Pervez a new trial on these counts if he had been entitled to a jury charge on entrapment because he had presented sufficient evidence [at trial] from which a reasonable jury could find entrapment. Mathews, 108 S.Ct. at 886. 27 We find that the evidence presented by Pervez at trial would not have justified a jury charge on entrapment on these counts, all of which involve the illegal attempt to export maraging steel through the falsification of an export application. In particular, there was no evidence that Pervez was induced to submit false documents to the Department of Commerce. Indeed, the record is devoid of evidence that shows even that the government initiated or solicited Pervez to submit false documents to the Department of Commerce. Cf. El-Gawli, 837 F.2d at 149 ([a] solicitation, request or approach by law enforcement officials to engage in criminal activity, standing alone, is not an inducement.). Although government agents stated that an export license could be issued only if the steel was intended for a non-nuclear end use, they never suggested that Pervez submit false end use statements. Indeed, it was Pervez's customer in Pakistan, not government agents, who recommended that Pervez invent a false end use for the steel. Pervez was instructed by Multinational to invent any end use that would satisfy U.S. Customs Agents. App. at 63a. In addition, we find no evidence that government agents suggested to Pervez that it was lawful or accepted practice for Pervez to falsify the export application. Rovello told Pervez that if the end use were legitimate and if there were an on-site inspection, the Department of Commerce might approve the application. App. at 1411a-13a. Rovello did not suggest that Pervez fabricate a non-nuclear end use in order to obtain the export license if the maraging steel was actually intended for nuclear application in Pakistan. Consequently, we find that this evidence would not have required a jury charge on entrapment, and that Pervez is not entitled to a new trial on these counts. 28 Moreover, we find that Pervez's admission of the elements of the beryllium charge to claim entrapment, necessitating vacatur of Pervez's conviction of Counts One and Five under the plain error doctrine, did not spill-over and affect the validity of Pervez's conviction on Counts Six, Seven, and Eight. See Berkery, 865 F.2d 590. Counts Six to Eight involve Pervez's false documentation of the end use for maraging steel only and do not refer to the export of beryllium. Consequently, Pervez's admission of the beryllium charges, which may have tainted the jury's consideration of Count One and which rendered Pervez's conviction on Count Five invalid, would not have tainted the jury's consideration of Counts Six, Seven and Eight. 29 Pervez also contends that, based on the evidence presented at trial, he is entitled to an acquittal as a matter of law because he was entrapped on Counts Six, Seven and Eight. For the reasons already stated denying Pervez's request for a new trial, we do not find that the record provides undisputed proof under Gambino that Pervez was entrapped by government agents as a matter of law. See Gambino, 788 F.2d at 944. 30 In addition, Pervez contends that the jury's acquittal on the bribery charges should carry with it an acquittal on the false documentation charges based on a theory of entrapment because submission of the [false] documents was part and parcel of the payment to Rovello. Appellant's brief at 22. This argument ignores the fact that more than one unlawful act was required on the part of Pervez before the application would be approved. The jury's acquittal on the bribery charges, presumably based on Pervez's entrapment defense, does not implicate his conviction on falsification of documents required to obtain an export license. Each illegal act is a separate crime. Each act was undertaken by Pervez. They are separate acts undertaken independently of the other, and thus acquittal on one offense does not necessitate acquittal on the other. 31 In United States v. Bay, 852 F.2d 702 (3d Cir.1988), a case remanded to this court in light of Mathews, 108 S.Ct. 1724, 100 L.Ed.2d 189 (1988), we determined that an inquiry under Mathews requires two steps: first, whether the record discloses sufficient evidence from which the jury could have found entrapment; and second, whether [the defendant] can show that he could have adduced sufficient evidence he had been given the opportunity to do so. 852 F.2d at 704. Although we have found that the record does not disclose sufficient evidence of entrapment to have warranted an entrapment instruction or acquittal, as in Bay, we find that we cannot resolve the second question on appeal. Therefore, we will remand to the district court for a proffer hearing to allow Pervez to present any evidence of entrapment not already in the record. If the court decides that there is sufficient evidence to present the issue to the jury, a new trial will be required, but if [Pervez] has no further evidence, or if the court decides that all the evidence together still would not warrant a jury verdict, the convictions will stand. Id. at 705.