United States v. Jamaal Maragh

532 F. App'x 256
Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit·Decided July 24, 2013·No. 11-2036·Unpublished

Opinion

OPINION

VANASKIE, Circuit Judge.

Jamaal Maragh appeals his conviction of eight counts of money laundering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1), challenging the sufficiency of the evidence on which the jury could have found him guilty. Because we conclude that a reasonable jury could have found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, we -will affirm the judgment of conviction.

I.

Since we write principally for the parties, we set forth only the facts essential to our analysis. Around 2001, Myron Punter began selling cocaine and crack cocaine in Alaska. He received the drugs via mail from the Virgin Islands, sent by one of Maragh’s codefendants, Isaiah Fawkes, who grew up with Punter in the Virgin Islands. Initially, Punter would wire money or send money orders directly to Fawkes, but later, to avoid suspicion, Punter sent money to other individuals in the Virgin Islands for Fawkes. Fawkes provided the names of these individuals to Punter. In further attempt to avoid suspicion, Punter testified that he also employed others, including Leigh Bennett, Tonisha Wade, and his wife, Shonderi Punter, to send his payments from Alaska back to the Virgin Islands to persons identified by Fawkes. Punter also testified that Maragh was one of the individuals to whom he sent money. Over the course of a year, from December 15, 2001, to December 4, 2002, Maragh received Western Union transfers of $66,650 from several *257 people, including Punter, Shonderi Punter, Bennett, and Wade. 1

In June 2007, a grand jury indicted Maragh and seven other defendants on a number of counts, which included conspiracy to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering. Earlier charges against Maragh for conspiracy to commit money laundering, set forth in a 2005 indictment, ended in a mistrial. Because the 2005 conspiracy charges were premised on the same conduct at issue here, the District Court dismissed the conspiracy count in the 2007 indictment as to Maragh on double jeopardy grounds. 2 Subsequently, Maragh and six other defendants proceeded to trial based on the charges in the 2007 indictment. 3 The jury found Maragh guilty of eight counts of money laundering (Counts 30 to 37) and the District Court sentenced him to twenty-nine months’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a special assessment.

II.

The District Court had jurisdiction under 48 U.S.C. § 1612(a) and 18 U.S.C. § 3231. We have appellate jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

Defendants challenging the sufficiency of the evidence must meet an “extremely high” burden. United States v. Iglesias, 535 F.3d 150, 155 (3d Cir.2008). We will uphold Maragh’s conviction “if the government’s evidence would permit a reasonable jury to ‘find the essential elements of the crime[s] beyond a reasonable doubt.’ ” United States v. Richardson, 658 F.3d 333, 337 (3d Cir.2011) (quoting United States v. Starnes, 583 F.3d 196, 206 (3d Cir.2009)). On such appeals, “we view evidence in the light most favorable to the government, mindful that it is the jury’s province (and not ours) to make credibility determinations and to assign weight to the evidence.” Id.

Maragh argues that the Government did not establish sufficient evidence on which a reasonable jury could have found him guilty of money laundering under 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(l)(B)(i). To prove a defendant engaged in money laundering under that subsection, the government must establish:

(1) an actual or attempted financial transaction; (2) involving the proceeds of [a] specified unlawful activity; (3) knowledge that the transaction involves the proceeds of some unlawful activity; and (4) ... knowledge that the transaction [was] designed in whole or in part to conceal the nature, location, source; ownership, or control of the proceeds of [a] specified unlawful activity.

Richardson, 658 F.3d at 337-38. 4 Maragh argues that the Government did not pro *258 vide sufficient evidence to prove that he knew that the money he received was proceeds from unlawful activity and that the transactions were designed to conceal the nature or source of the proceeds.

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United States v. Jamaal Maragh, 532 F. App'x 256 (3d Cir. 2013).

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Related

United States v. Richardson
658 F.3d 333 (Third Circuit, 2011)
United States v. Jamaal Maragh
456 F. App'x 181 (Third Circuit, 2012)
United States v. Isaiah Fawkes
510 F. App'x 183 (Third Circuit, 2013)
United States v. Starnes
583 F.3d 196 (Third Circuit, 2009)
United States v. Iglesias
535 F.3d 150 (Third Circuit, 2008)