United States v. Gordon Finlay, United States of America v. Finlay Testing Laboratories, Inc.

55 F.3d 1410, 95 Daily Journal DAR 6675, 95 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 3874, 1995 U.S. App. LEXIS 12562, 1995 WL 314569
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMay 25, 1995
Docket94-10106, 94-10107
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 55 F.3d 1410 (United States v. Gordon Finlay, United States of America v. Finlay Testing Laboratories, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth 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. Gordon Finlay, United States of America v. Finlay Testing Laboratories, Inc., 55 F.3d 1410, 95 Daily Journal DAR 6675, 95 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 3874, 1995 U.S. App. LEXIS 12562, 1995 WL 314569 (9th Cir. 1995).

Opinion

NOONAN, Circuit Judge:

Gordon Finlay (Finlay) appeals his conviction of two conspiracies to defraud the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371, the first occurring between January and October of 1987 by transporting nuclear materials in violation of law and in this connection falsifying records for submission to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the NRC); the second, a conspiracy between August 1987 and November 1987 to defraud the United States by obtaining from the NRC a reinstatement of the license of Finlay Testing Laboratories, Inc. (FTL) to possess radioactive materials. Finlay also challenges his conviction of violating 18 U.S.C. § 1001 by making a materially false statement to the NRC.

Finlay Testing Laboratories, Inc., appeals its conviction of ten counts of illegally transporting radioactive materials in April 1987 in violation of 49 U.S.C.App. § 1809(b) and its further conviction of six counts of concealing a material fact within the jurisdiction of the NRC in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001.

We affirm the convictions of Finlay and of FTL.

FACTS

From the perspective of the government, the following was established at trial:

FTL is engaged in industrial testing by radiography, a process conducted by using portable devices known as “sources” or “cameras” which create an image of a metal object through the use of radiation. Each source contains a small pellet of nuclear material emitting gamma radiation. FTL was licensed to use such radioactive materials by the NRC and was subject to NRC regulations set out in 10 C.F.R. pt. 34 (1994); see also 10 C.F.R. pts. 19, 20, and 71 (1994).

Gordon Finlay was the owner and chief executive officer of FTL. In 1987 he owned 51% and his wife owned 49% of its stock. In December 1991, after commencement of the NRC investigation leading to the convictions challenged here, he transferred 2% of his stock to his wife, so that she now holds a majority interest, and he put the remaining 49% of the stock into a revocable trust of which he is both the trustee and the beneficiary.

Operating out of Oahu, FTL in 1987 had only three sources in Hawaii. The transportation of radioactive materials was prohibited on aircraft carrying passengers. 49 U.S.CApp. § 1809(b); 49 C.F.R. § 173.448(f). Compliance with the law meant that FTL had to ship its sources by barge with the result that they were tied up for a week on jobs on Hawaiian islands other than Oahu and even longer when the sources were used on a military base being constructed on Johnston Island, 700 miles from Oahu. FTL could not openly defy the law and report the breach to the NRC. FTL needed swift transport of the sources; to obtain it, FTL had to resort to deception.

In January 1987 Finlay directed the return of a source from Johnston Island to Honolulu by an employee secretly carrying the source aboard a military passenger plane. Finlay sent out a replacement source to Johnston Island as unaccompanied baggage on a civilian passenger plane. In the same month Finlay himself covertly carried a source on a passenger flight from Oahu to the Big Island of Hawaii and brought a source back in the same way. In February 1987 FTL’s radiation safety officer, Tim Carroll, put a source aboard a passenger flight to the Big Island for a job at Big Island Meat Company. Two other FTL employees, at Finlay’s direction, brought the undocumented source back to Oahu. In April 1987 an FTL employee made three interisland trips on passenger aircraft secretly carrying sources at Finlay’s di *1413 rection. Also at Finlay’s order they secretly carried a source to Maui and back to Oahu. On August 18,1987, Finlay packed a container carrying a source for Ron and Randy Austin, who then carried it without documentation on a military passenger flight from Oahu to Johnston Island.

The NRC required licensees such as FTL to maintain “U-logs” to be prepared each time a source was used. FTL was also required to maintain shipping and receiving logs for the sources and to make out Hazmat forms warning shippers that they were carrying hazardous material. FTL did not prepare the U-logs or other documents that were required for any of the above-listed interisland or Johnston Island flights. For the Johnston Island job the records were further falsified to indicate that the sources were sent by barge.

In August 1987 the NRC learned of two of the illegal shipments: that to the Big Island Meat Company and that by the Austin brothers to Johnston Island. The NRC began an investigation.

Carroll admitted to the NRC that he had been involved with the source shipment to the Big Island Meat Company. Finlay and Carroll agreed that the way to placate the NRC was for Finlay to appear to suspend Carroll, and Finlay announced a one month suspension without pay in a letter to Carroll that Finlay showed to NRC investigators. Carroll continued to work and to be paid, although these facts were kept from the NRC. Despite the show of contrition, the NRC suspended FTL’s license on September 21, 1987.

Two weeks later, on October 5, 1987, FTL filed a “request for recision or relaxation of order” with the NRC. The two incidents that the NRC knew of were presented by FTL as actions by employees acting without Finlay’s knowledge. The violations were said not to have been authorized by FTL or Finlay “and certainly were not the usual course of business at Finlay Testing.” Fin-lay was stated to have provided all the appropriate shipping papers, including a Hazmat form to Ron Austin for the August shipment to Johnston Island. Carroll’s action was portrayed as “surprising, aberrational and unusual,” and to have been met, when discovered, by Carroll’s prompt suspension, at the end of which chastisement he would return, reformed, to the company. Attached to this request to the NRC were six false documents that Carroll had faked in April 1987 at Fin-lay’s direction to cover up the illegal January 1987 shipments to and from Johnston Island. These documents were submitted as evidence that the proper papers had been prepared for the later Austin shipment. The bluff was clumsy since the documents on their face were dated January 9,1987; apparently Fin-lay thought the fact that Carroll’s name appeared on them would be enough for them to pass muster with the NRC.

PROCEEDINGS

By April 1992 the United States Attorney for the District of Hawaii was on the verge of procuring an indictment of FTL and Finlay. Finlay already had one lawyer, Dennis Ing, for business matters. He now sought the assistance of an experienced criminal defense lawyer, John Edmunds, who contacted the United States Attorney, Daniel Bent. Bent made it clear that the United States was willing to negotiate but only if the defendants waived the five year statute of limitations. In response to this position, FTL passed a corporate resolution, drafted by Ing, authorizing the waiver of the statute of limitations for any failure of the United States to prosecute prior to April 3, 1992. Finlay signed this waiver on behalf of FTL.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Sylvia Walter-Eze
869 F.3d 891 (Ninth Circuit, 2017)
United States v. Stinson
647 F.3d 1196 (Ninth Circuit, 2011)
State v. Keener
2008 ND 156 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 2008)
United States v. WR Grace
429 F. Supp. 2d 1207 (D. Montana, 2006)
United States v. Perez-Aguilar
17 F. App'x 520 (Ninth Circuit, 2001)
United States v. Thomas J. Maloney
71 F.3d 645 (Seventh Circuit, 1996)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
55 F.3d 1410, 95 Daily Journal DAR 6675, 95 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 3874, 1995 U.S. App. LEXIS 12562, 1995 WL 314569, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-gordon-finlay-united-states-of-america-v-finlay-testing-ca9-1995.