Court Opinion

ID: 9486114
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:38:10.564456+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:31.973652
License: Public Domain

KENNEDY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I concur in all of the majority opinion except the dismissal of the section 1956(a)(l)(A)(i) convictions. I agree with the majority that mere transportation of cash is not a “financial transaction.” However, there is more than the mere transportation of cash alleged in counts 2, 5, 6 and 7. There is also the use of those funds to purchase marijuana. That purchase seems to me to be a “transaction” as defined in subsection (c)(3) (“the term ‘transaction’ includes a purchase, sale, loan, pledge, gift, transfer, delivery or other disposition”), and a “financial transaction” under subsection (e)(4) (“a transaction which in any way or degree affects interstate or foreign commerce ... involving the movement of funds by wire or other means”).
The transactions here affect interstate commerce. There are purchases of marijuana alleged in each count and proved as to each count with the proceeds of unlawful activity. There is the movement of funds by “other means,” namely, in an automobile or airplane or on the person of the courier. The “financial transaction” was conducted with the intent to promote the marijuana conspiracy which is a specified unlawful activity. I agree with the panel of the Second Circuit in United States v. Skinner, 946 F.2d 176 (2d Cir.1991), upholding the conviction under this section for payment for illegal drugs with the proceeds from illegal drug sales. Although the earlier transfers of funds in Skinner were by United States Postal Service money orders sent from Vermont to Alaska, part of the 120 grams were sold directly by Blodgett to Skinner in Vermont after Blodgett returned to Vermont. Dealing with defendant’s arguments, the Second Circuit held:
First, appellants argue that they were improperly convicted of money laundering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(l)(A)(i) (1988), because the statute was designed to criminalize financial transactions aimed at concealing the source of proceeds generated from illegal activity. Congress did not intend, they argue, to convert simple payment for illegal drugs into an independent offense. Although appellants’ conduct seems to differ from that which we traditionally associate with the term “money laundering,” the language Congress used in 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(l)(A)(i) shows that it sought to reach conduct that went beyond the concealment of proceeds of criminal activity. Indeed, the words of this provision of the statute, in conjunction with the definitions provided in 18 U.S.C. § 1956(c) (1988), demonstrate that Congress intended to make unlawful a broad array of transactions designed to facilitate *539numerous federal crimes, including the sale of cocaine.
Where, as here, the statutory language is unambiguous, absent legislative history that contradicts that language, we will not adopt a different construction of the statute. United States v. Holroyd, 732 F.2d 1122, 1125 (2d Cir.1984). Appellants have pointed to no legislative history that contradicts the plain meaning of § 1956(a)(l)(A)(i). Nor has our own review of the legislative history given us reason to deviate from the district court’s view of the breadth of the statute.
Id. at 177-78 (footnote omitted).
Nor am I persuaded that because elsewhere in section 1956, subsection (a)(2) (transporting funds from the United States to or through a foreign country to promote an unlawful activity is specifically punished), that Congress did not intend in subsection (a)(1)(A) to include transporting funds across state lines and using them to carry out an unlawful activity. If, as subsection (a)(1)(A) appears to say, all purchases with drug proceeds affecting interstate commerce with intent to promote the unlawful activity are already crimes, then there was no need to include these in section 1956(a)(2).
Neither United States v. Bell, 936 F.2d 337, 341-42 (7th Cir.1991), nor United States v. Gonzalez-Rodriguez, 966 F.2d 918, 926 (5th Cir.1992), cited in the majority opinion, are to the contrary. In Bell, as the majority points out, the money was merely placed in a safe deposit box. It was not used in a transaction. In Gonzalez-Rodriguez, the defendant, who was convicted of money laundering, was convicted under subsection (a)(l)(B)(i). Id. at 924, n. 9. Further, the defendant was merely found with drug proceeds. They had not been used in any transaction.
I would AFFIRM the 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1) convictions.