United States v. Frank C. Cihak Henry S. Landan Merced Cantu, Jr. I. Stephen Bloch Patricia Ruiz

137 F.3d 252
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedApril 14, 1998
Docket96-20862
StatusPublished
Cited by54 cases

This text of 137 F.3d 252 (United States v. Frank C. Cihak Henry S. Landan Merced Cantu, Jr. I. Stephen Bloch Patricia Ruiz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Frank C. Cihak Henry S. Landan Merced Cantu, Jr. I. Stephen Bloch Patricia Ruiz, 137 F.3d 252 (5th Cir. 1998).

Opinion

STEWART, Circuit Judge:

In the district court, a jury convicted defendants Frank C. Cihak, I. Stephen Bloch and Henry Landan of conspiracy to defraud, misapply and launder funds of a federally insured financial institution (18 U.S.C. § 371), bank fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1344), nine counts of wire fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1343), ten counts of misapplication of bank funds (18 U.S.C. § 656), and six counts of domestic money laundering (18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(l)(B)(i)). Bloch alone was convicted of nine counts of international money laundering (18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(2)(B)(i)). Ci-hak alone was convicted of five counts of making false entries in bank records (18 U.S.C. § 1005). Landan alone was convicted of three counts of receiving stolen money (18 U.S.C. § 2315). Defendants Cihak, Bloch, Patricia Ruiz and Merced Cantu, Jr. were convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice (18 U.S.C. § 371) and obstruction of justice (18 U.S.C. § 1503). 1

Cihak was sentenced to 262 months in prison, Landan to 78 months, Bloch to 121 months, Cantu to 51 months, and Ruiz to 41 months. The district court also ordered restitution of $9,973,005 jointly and severally payable by Cihak, Bloch and Landan and imposed $50,000 fines on Ruiz and Cantu.

On appeal, Cihak argues that this prosecution violated the Double Jeopardy provision of the Fifth Amendment; that the district court abused its discretion and unduly prejudiced him by admitting evidence of his previous conviction for similar and related offenses; that his convictions on Count 1 (conspiracy to defraud, misapply and launder funds of a federally insured financial institution in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371) must be reversed because the jury may have convicted him on a legally insufficient basis; that the district court erred in determining his offense level for sentencing purposes; and that the district court erred by ordering him to pay $9,973,005 in restitution.

Bloch and Landan make virtually identical arguments on appeal: that the district court abused its discretion and unduly prejudiced them by admitting evidence of codefendant Cihak’s previous conviction for similar and related offenses; that their convictions on Count 1 (conspiracy to defraud, misapply and launder funds of a federally insured financial institution in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371) must be reversed because the jury may have convicted them on a legally insufficient basis; that the district court erred in determining their offense level for money laundering under the- sentencing guidelines. In addition, Landan argues that the district court abused its discretion by denying his motion for severance.

Cantu argues that the district court erred in admitting extraneous act evidence against him; that the district court abused its discretion by denying his motion for severance; and that the district court erred in determining his offense level under the sentencing guidelines.

Ruiz argues that the district court abused its discretion and unduly prejudiced her by *257 admitting evidence of codefendant Cihak’s previous conviction for similar and related offenses and that the district court abused its discretion by denying her motion for severance.

All five defendants challenge the sufficiency of the evidence supporting their convictions.

After a thorough review of the record, we AFFIRM defendants’ convictions and REMAND as regards the sentencing of Ruiz and Cantu.

BACKGROUND

In 1987, First City National Bank of Houston (“First City”) was taken over by a group of private investors, the Abboud Group. Defendant Cihak, a Chicago banker, was a member of the Abboud Group. Cihak was made Vice Chairman of the board and ’the senior credit officer at First City.

Cihak hired defendant Bloch, the owner of Banner Corporation (“Banner”), a Maryland data processing consulting company, as a consultant to First City. Bloch hired subcontractors to do the actual work on the bank’s projects and then charged a markup on the amount the subcontractors charged him. From November 1987 until Cihak was removed from the bank in June 1990, Bloch charged First City approximately $10.5 million in consulting fees, however, the invoices that Bloch received from the subcontractors totaled only $2,782,185.

The government contends that Cihak received approximately $2 million in kickbacks, funneled through his attorney, defendant Landan from the payments that First City made to Bloch. The government further contends that the funds were dispersed in the following manner: (1) First City paid Banner for Bloch’s consulting services; (2) Bloch deposited the checks from First City into Banner’s account; (3) the funds were then wired to another Banner account; (4) from this account, Bloch drew cheeks payable to himself; (5) these checks were deposited into his personal account; (6) checks made payable to Landan were then drawn on this account; (7) these checks were deposited into Landan’s firm’s account; (8) from this account, Landan issued checks payable to various banks as payment on Cihak’s outstanding debts arid to make investments for Cihak.

The government further contends that when bank officials bécame suspicious of Ci-hak and Bloch, they, along with defendants Ruiz and Cantu fabricated a cover story to account for thé kickbacks from Bloch. Under this scheme, Cihak claims to have entered into a joint venture agreement with defendant Ruiz in March of 1988. The agreement contained a “note with conversion option” under which Ruiz would loan Cihak up to $2 million. According to the government, the scheme was structured to look as though the payments that Cihak received through Landan were merely the funds that Ruiz was loaning him in connection with the joint venture. With the aid of Cantu, Cihak, Bloch and Ruiz falsified documents regarding the funds received by Cihak. These documents were eventually provided to the United States government during its investigation of the operations at First City.

DISCUSSION

I. Double Jeopardy

In 1993, defendant Cihak and a different set of co-conspirators were convicted of defrauding First City. 2

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Bluebook (online)
137 F.3d 252, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-frank-c-cihak-henry-s-landan-merced-cantu-jr-i-ca5-1998.