Court Opinion

ID: 9454633
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:53:08.20852+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:12.890924
License: Public Domain

FRIENDLY, Circuit Judge,
concurring (with whom FEINBERG, Circuit Judge, also concurs):
If the issue were res nova, I would have considerable difficulty in believing that an accountant who makes a payment to an internal revenue agent can properly be convicted for aiding and abetting the agent in violations of 26 U.S.C. § 7214(a) (2). The ALI Model Penal Code, which uses the term “accomplice” to encompass aiding and abetting, § 2.06(3), says in § 2.06(6):
“Unless otherwise provided by the Code or by the law defining the offense, a person is not an accomplice in an offense committed by another person if:
(b) the offense is so defined that his conduct is inevitably incident to its commission; * * * ”
This principle would seem peculiarly applicable when the legislature has enacted other provisions, here 18 U.S.C. § 201, specifically directed against the payor, even though Congress decided in 1963 that these were not broad enough.
However, this court crossed that bridge in United States v. Kenner, 354 F.2d 780, 785 (2 Cir. 1965), cert. denied, 383 U.S. 958, 86 S.Ct. 1223, 16 L.Ed.2d 301 (1966), the applicability of which we assumed on Barash’s earlier appeal, 365 F.2d at 399 n. 3, see also United States v. Cohen, 387 F.2d 803 (2 Cir. 1967). I understand that the Government now “pairs” with § 201(b) only the lesser included offense of § 201(f), and Barash was convicted on two counts under old § 201 which would have amply supported the nine months imprisonment that he must serve. I am also not entirely persuaded that even if Barash could permissibly be held guilty as an aider or abettor of the agent’s violations of 26 U.S.C. § 7214(a) (2), he could be convicted both of that and of a violation of § 201, see Milanovich v. United States, 365 U.S. 551, 81 S.Ct. 728, 5 L.Ed.2d 773 (1961), as he was on counts 8 and 28, and 10 and 30, but that also seems to be assumed by our previous decisions. Under the circumstances I do not feel warranted in seeking reconsideration of these issues by the full court.
In all other respects I agree with Judge Moore’s careful opinion.