Court Opinion

ID: 9453276
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:08:47.956915+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:35.688582
License: Public Domain

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING
In seeking rehearing appellant again complains of the exclusion of his proffered “net worth chart” and certain expert testimony. We think he confuses the stringent burden of proof imposed on the government in a net worth prosecution with the proper foundation which must be laid to render evidence admissible in any case. Appellant has not met the latter requirement, as we explained in our opinion. Without repeating all of the grounds for that conclusion, we note especially that he would have us hold that certain net worth statements provided by him to the government for the years 1950-1954, which do not reflect the existence of the cash hoard allegedly received by gift in 1950, do in fact reflect all expenditures made from that hoard. We recognize that appellant was free to prove that his cash on hand for these years was in the neighborhood of $300,000, rather than between $5,000 and $18,000 as he had reported. But we cannot hold that, as a matter of law, the court was forced to accept the uniform expenditure figures in his statements of $6,000 a year as evidence of the extent to which the cash hoard had or had not been dissipated during those years.
As an alternate ground of decision, we held that even if the district court had erred in excluding the proffered evidence, appellant was not prejudiced in presenting his defense that the gift had been made and that the government’s opening net worth figure was therefore erroneous. We can but reiterate that it is clear from the record that the key issue in the case was the existence of the alleged gift and consequent cash hoard. Expert testimony as to the impact of the alleged hoard on the government’s net worth chart was, in fact, admitted in evidence even without any evidence that the hoard was in existence at the beginning of the period covered by the chart. The issue of the existence of the hoard and its impact was argued at length to the jury. The court gave complete instructions on the government’s burden of proof, on the government’s obligation to run down “leads” such as that offered by appellant and discrediting them, and of the impact of evidence casting doubt upon the opening “net worth” figure in the government’s case. Under the circumstances we cannot see how petitioner can, except by failing to consider pertinent portions of the record, claim prejudice.
Petition denied.