Court Opinion

ID: 9461622
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:19:41.196019+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:10.231378
License: Public Domain

MULLIGAN, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
I concur in the majority opinion except that I cannot agree that the evidence adduced at the trial of this case was sufficient to establish that Herbie Kurshenoff was guilty of the single chain conspiracy charged in the indictment. There was a variance in the proof which at best established that Kurshenoff was guilty of a separate conspiracy with Russo for the sale and purchase of the counterfeit $10 bills. This was not the crime charged in the indictment, not the theory of - the Government’s case below or on appeal and not the conspiracy charged to the jury by the court.1 At the same time, as we *1220have recently noted in United States v. Miley, 513 F.2d 1191, 1207 (1975):
This, however, does not automatically require reversal. Where the indictment charges one conspiracy but the-proof shows more than one, a variance is not necessarily fatal. “The true inquiry ... is not whether there has been a variance in proof, but whether there has been such a variance as to ‘affect the substantial rights’ of the accused.” Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 82, 55 S.Ct. 629, 630, 79 L.Ed. 1314 (1935).
Finding no such prejudice, I am compelled to concur. The spill-over claim here is not compelling and did not approach the danger of transference of guilt found persuasive in Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946).2 See United States v. Miley, supra, 513 F.2d at 1209.
In my view, there is no evidence to support a reasonable inference by a jury that Kurshenoff was engaged in any ongoing venture with Bogan and La Vecc-hia, the printers and promoters of the bogus bills. It is conceded that he never met any one of the alleged conspirators except for Russo, who, in the summer of 1972, made two sales of counterfeit bills to Kurshenoff in his Manhattan wig emporium, Mr. Esquire.3 While their total face value w.as $10,000, Kurshenoff’s investment was $1900. Although the court properly charged that a defendant need not know the identity of his fellow conspirators, he must know or have reason to believe that they exist as functioning operatives in a continuing criminal enterprise — else how can he be said to have a stake in and to have adopted the apparatus of their venture?
The judge charged the jury:
If you find that all the counterfeit bills were printed from plates made from the same negatives that were found in 270 Lafayette Street on the night Mr. Bogin [sic] and Mr. La Vecc-hia were arrested, you can find that it was a single conspiracy.
This, in my view, is error since there is nothing in the record to link Kurshenoff with Bogan and La Vecchia. Although the bills he bought in fact originated with the principal malefactors, how did the Government establish any nexus of intentional complicity between them and Kurshenoff? The majority here urges that, since Kurshenoff bought two large quantities of counterfeit bills on two separate occasions from Russo, negotiated the sale price in terms of points, and was advised by Russo prior to the second sale that he had more to sell, there were sufficient facts to alert Kurshenoff that others were supplying Russo. None of these facts, singly or in the aggregate, is probative of such knowledge.
I think that the basic error here is equating the sale of counterfeit money with illegal drug trafficking. In numerous cases, this court has described the typical functioning of the drug chain conspiracy — the progressive steps of importation of raw drugs, adulteration, packaging, wholesaling and eventual *1221street retailing. In these cases, the very size of the sales and the circumstances of distribution at various levels were persuasive of the existence of a continuing chain conspiracy and the knowing participation of the actors at each level in the ongoing venture. See United States v. Miley, supra, at 1206-1207; United States v. Tramunti 513 F.2d 1087, 1105-1107 (2d Cir. 1975); United States v. Sperling, 506 F.2d 1323, 1340 (2d Cir. 1974); United States v. Mallah, 503 F.2d 971, 983-84 (2d Cir. 1974); United States v. Arroyo, 494 F.2d 1316 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 827, 95 SiCt. 46, 42 L.Ed.2d 51 (1974); United States v. Bynum, 485 F.2d 490, 495-97 (2d Cir. 1973), vacated and remanded on other grounds, 417 U.S. 903, 94 S.Ct. 2598, 41 L.Ed.2d 209 (1974). In my view, the same considerations are not necessarily present in the counterfeiting venture before us. A few plates and negatives here alone could furnish phony ten dollar bills on a continuing basis. The size of a purchase of this type is not indicative of an organization assuring a steady supply but simply of equipment in a back room turned on to meet the demands of customers. Kurshenoff could not reasonably have supposed that he was the only customer; but why he should have imagined that others in a top echelon above Russo were also involved is not clear to me.
The fact that he bought the bills at a discount does not establish anything more sinister than the transactions themselves. Even a purveyor of perukes would understand that bogus bills are not to be purchased at face value. Although Russo called Kurshenoff after he received a second shipment from McMillan, there is nothing in the transcript to indicate that he had mentioned receiving it from a third party. His testimony was:
And then the second time — I believe I called up Herbie and told him I had some more and I was coming over with some.
The Government argues that since Russo was practically illiterate — he had the reading skills of a third grade student — Kurshenoff should have known that Russo did not make the money himself. This is a non sequitur. The printing of counterfeit money is hardly a vocation which demands a classical education as a prerequisite. A counterfeiter is not an author but a copier, and presumably he could duplicate bills in any foreign currency without being polylingual.4
A principal reason for this separate opinion is that this court has recently said on two separate occasions involving drug conspiracies that it has become all too common for the Government to bring indictments against numerous defendants on the claim of a single conspiracy when the criminal acts could more reasonably and sensibly be regarded as two or more conspiracies. See United States v. Miley, supra, 513 F.2d at 1207 at n. 10; United States v. Sperling, supra, 506 F.2d at 1340-41. The drug cases are applied here to a counterfeiting case, which, as we have pointed out, is a distinguishable criminal undertaking. Since it is easier to prove a single drug conspiracy than it is to show a single conspiracy for other criminal purposes, our warnings to the Government become especially relevant in a case like this one.
In sum, I do not think that the evidence in this case was sufficient to show any connection between Kurshenoff and the criminal enterprise run by the principal malefactors, nor do I believe that anything in Kurshenoff’s dealings with Russo would justify this court in finding that Kurshenoff must have known of a criminal participation beyond that of *1222Russo. While Kurshenoff was no stranger to the spurious in his regular calling, there is no showing of expertise on his part in the product extension attempted. However, I can find no prejudice to Kurshenoff so serious as to require the reversal of his conviction.

. The conspiracy charged in the indictment extended from June, 1971 to February 15, 1973. The district judge instructed the jury that if it found separate conspiracies in 1971, 1972 and *12201973, then “transactions and statements in 1971 and 1973 could not be used against Mr. Andriotis and Mr. Kurshenoff in connection with the sales to them that were alleged to have been made in the summer of 1972.” The concern of this opinion is not with the time of the conspiracy but rather with the alleged link between Kurshenoff and Bogan and La Vecc-hia.

. The recognition that admission at a trial of several defendants of evidence of another conspiracy with which a particular defendant is not associated is inimical to his interests is not new. In 1603, in the treason trial of Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Edward Coke reminded the' jury that two conspiracies against the King had been discovered. Raleigh interrupted, addressing the jury: “I pray you, Gentlemen, remember that I am not charged with . the treason of the priests.” Coke responded that all these treasons, “like Sampson’s foxes, were joined together at the tails, though their heads were severed.” C. Bowen, The Lion and the Throne 193 (1957). The origin of the term “spoke” conspiracy?

. Since the actual sales occurred in Manhattan, in the Southern District of New York, Kurshenoff was not charged with any substantive crime in the Eastern District.

. Strangely enough, Russo was a licensed real estate salesman. He testified that he managed to obtain his license without being able to read the questions on the examination, by guessing at the answers to multiple choice questions. This suggests either that Russo possesses exceptional extrasensory perception, or that the examination techniques employed need to be tightened and the proctoring process reviewed. Russo’s ability to count is unchallenged.