Opinion ID: 776235
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Criminal Indictment under the FSIA?

Text: 26 The FSIA provide that [s]ubject to existing international agreements . . . a foreign state shall be immune from the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States and of the States except as provided in sections 1605 to 1607 of this chapter. 28 U.S.C. § 1604. The jurisdictional grant of the FSIA is silent on the subject of criminal actions: 27 The district courts shall have original jurisdiction without regard to amount in controversy of any non-jury civil action against a foreign state as defined in section 1603(a) of this title as to any claim for relief in personam with respect to which the foreign state is not entitled to immunity either under sections 1605-1607 of this title or under any applicable international agreement. 28 28 U.S.C. § 1330(a). 29 In rejecting the defendants' RICO argument the district court quoted the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, which has concluded that the FSIA does not prohibit the district court from exercising subject matter jurisdiction over civil RICO actions against foreign sovereigns. See Southway, 198 F.3d at 1216. Southway was a case against the CBN and the Republic of Nigeria alleging that the CBN and Nigeria had defrauded Colorado investors by having them assist in collecting money from an over-invoiced contract for oil drilling machinery. Id. at 1212-13. The Southway court was unpersuaded by the same indictability argument defendants raise here, namely, that there is no criminal jurisdiction over them and, therefore, they are immune from civil RICO claims. The court reasoned that the FSIA's silence on criminal jurisdiction meant that the statute did not provide immunity to the foreign sovereigns on civil RICO claims: If Congress intended defendants such as CBN and RN [Republic of Nigeria] to be immune from criminal indictment under the FSIA, Congress should amend the FSIA to expressly so state. Id. at 1214; see also United States v. Noriega, 117 F.3d 1206, 1212 (11th Cir. 1997) (stating in the context of head-of-state immunity that the FSIA does not address immunity from criminal jurisdiction; affirming convictions of the former commander of the Panamanian Defense Forces for RICO and drug-related charges and noting that the United States never recognized defendant as a legitimate ruler); United States v. Hendron, 813 F. Supp. 973, 977 (E.D.N.Y. 1993) (concluding that the FSIA applied only to civil proceedings and refusing to dismiss an indictment involving unlicensed arms importation against a Polish director of a Polish state-owned corporation). 30 In contrast, an Ohio district court has dismissed civil RICO claims against an instrumentality of the French government because it determined that there was no criminal jurisdiction over the entity. Gould, Inc. v. Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co., Ltd., 750 F. Supp. 838, 844 (N.D. Ohio 1990). The Gould court applied the opposite presumption from the Southway court and explained that Congress would have to create explicitly an exception to the FSIA's general immunity in order to establish criminal jurisdiction over foreign sovereigns. The court reasoned that 31 [t]he legislative history behind the FSIA provides that the FSIA set[s] forth the sole and exclusive standards to be used in resolving questions of sovereign immunity and prescribes . . . the jurisdiction of United States district courts in cases involving foreign states, S. Rep. No. 1310, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 11-12, reprinted in 1976 U.S. CODE CONG. & ADMIN. NEWS 6604, 6610. The United States Supreme Court has also held that the text and structure of the FSIA demonstrates Congressional intent that the FSIA is the sole basis for obtaining jurisdiction over a foreign state in our courts. Argentine Republic [v. Amerada Hess Shipping Corp., 488 U.S. 428, 434 (1989)]. The Argentine Republic Court did not limit its conclusion concerning the FSIA to civil cases. Moreover, in peacetime situations, this country does not bring criminal proceedings against other nations. Therefore, since the FSIA is the only method of obtaining jurisdiction over foreign sovereigns, and § 1330(a) refers only to civil, and not criminal, actions there is no criminal jurisdiction over [defendant] Pechiney/Trefimetaux, an agency of the French government. 32 Id. at 843-44 (footnote omitted). The court determined that, because there was no criminal jurisdiction, the French agency's acts were not indictable for purposes of the civil RICO statute, and, therefore, the civil RICO claims failed. Id. at 844. 33 The reasoning employed in Gould is persuasive on the criminal jurisdiction question. The FSIA states that a foreign state shall be immune from the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States, and does not limit this grant of immunity to civil cases. 28 U.S.C. § 1604. The statute provides that jurisdiction over a foreign sovereign will exist only if there is a relevant international agreement or an exception listed in 28 U.S.C. §§ 1605-1607. Plaintiff has not cited an international agreement regarding criminal jurisdiction over RICO claims or predicate offenses, and the FSIA does not provide an exception for criminal jurisdiction. As the Supreme Court has explained, the subject-matter jurisdiction of the lower federal courts is determined by Congress 'in the exact degrees and character which to Congress may seem proper for the public good.' Argentine Republic v. Amerada Hess Shipping Corp., 488 U.S. 428, 433 (1989) (citation omitted); see also id. at 436 (stating in the context of the Alien Tort Statute that under the FSIA, immunity is granted in those cases involving alleged violations of international law that do not come within one of the FSIA's exceptions); Insurance Corp. of Ireland v. Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee, 456 U.S. 694, 701 (1982) (jurisdiction of lower federal courts is limited to those subjects encompassed within the statutory grant of jurisdiction). We conclude that the FSIA grants immunity to foreign sovereigns from criminal prosecution, absent an international agreement stating otherwise. 34