United States v. Kaid

241 F. App'x 747
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedSeptember 12, 2007
DocketNos. 05-4470-cr (L), 05-4481-cr (CON), 05- 4685-cr (CON), 05-6993-cr (CON), 06-0229-cr (CON), 06-0537-cr (CON)
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 241 F. App'x 747 (United States v. Kaid) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second 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. Kaid, 241 F. App'x 747 (2d Cir. 2007).

Opinion

SUMMARY ORDER

Defendants-Appellants Aref Ahmed, Rmzy Abdullah, Azzeaz Saleh, Mohamed [750]*750Abuhamra, and Nagib Aziz appeal from their convictions and sentences for conspiracy to commit money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h), and trafficking in contraband cigarettes, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2842. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the facts, procedural history, and issues on appeal.

Between them, Appellants raise nine distinct issues: (1) whether the federal prosecutions were effectively foreclosed by New York’s policy of not enforcing its cigarette tax on non-Native Americans purchasing cigarettes on Indian reservations; (2) whether there was legally sufficient evidence to convict Abuhamra of conspiracy to commit money laundering; (3) whether the government’s failure to inform Ahmed of its intent to secure in-court identification by two witnesses necessitated a mistrial; (4) whether the court below erred in instructing the jury on variance dates; (5) whether the absence of Saleh’s attorney during a twenty-minute portion of the trial deprived Saleh of the effective assistance of counsel; (6) whether the fact that the court below, in determining the tax loss calculations in order to set the base offense levels, used data that was in part flawed warrants resentencing; (7) whether the court below abused its discretion in applying Sentencing Guidelines enhancement provisions to Aziz and Abuhamra; (8) whether Abdullah’s sentence was substantively reasonable; and (9) whether portions of Ahmed’s Pre-Sentence Report should have been redacted. In this order, we address all of the claims except Saleh’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim, which we address in a separate opinion, and Abdullah’s challenge to the reasonableness of his sentence, which we need not reach in light of our decision to remand for resentencing on other grounds.

(1) Federal law prohibits the states from taxing cigarettes sold on Native American reservations to Native Americans, but allows state taxes to be imposed on non-Native American consumers on reservations. Moe v. Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes of Flathead Reservation, 425 U.S. 463, 475-83, 96 S.Ct. 1634, 48 L.Ed.2d 96 (1976). New York law provides for taxes on non-Native Americans purchasing cigarettes in stores on reservations, but New York has a policy of non-enforcement of this tax. N.Y. Ass’n of Convenience Stores v. Urbach, 92 N.Y.2d 204, 213-14, 677 N.Y.S.2d 280, 699 N.E.2d 904 (N.Y.1998). Ahmed and Abuhamra assert that this non-enforcement policy “effectively ‘de-taxed’ sales of cigarettes to non-Native Americans on reservation land,” thereby negating the element of “contraband” necessary to a conviction for trafficking in contraband cigarettes under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2341 — 42. This argument is meritless. While it appears that New York does not enforce its taxes on small quantities of cigarettes purchased on reservations for personal use by non-Native Americans, nothing in the record supports the conclusion that the state does not demand that taxes be paid when, as in this case, massive quantities of cigarettes were purchased on reservations by non-Native Americans for resale. Appellants’ claim that they believed these cigarettes to have been “effectively ‘de-taxed’ ” is further belied by their active efforts, including the use of police scanners, to evade official detection.

Appellants’ claims that taxing cigarette sales made on reservations to nonNative Americans violates the Treaty with the Seneca, May 20, 1842, 7 Stat. 586, 590 (1842), or New York Indian Law § 6 (McKinney 2000), are equally unavailing. Both the treaty and the New York statute clearly prohibit only the taxation of real property, not chattels like cigarettes. See Snyder v. Wetzler, 193 A.D.2d 329, 603 N.Y.S.2d 910, 912-13 (N.Y.App.Div.1993), [751]*751aff'd, 84 N.Y.2d 941, 620 N.Y.S.2d 813, 644 N.E.2d 1369 (N.Y.1994).

(2) Abuhamra asserts that there was insufficient evidence to convict him of conspiracy to commit money laundering. “ ‘[A] defendant raising an appellate challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence supporting a conviction faces a “heavy burden,” because we must review the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, drawing all reasonable inferences in its favor.’ ” United States v. Lombardozzi, 491 F.3d 61, 67 (2d Cir.2007) (quoting United States v. Gaskin, 364 F.3d 438, 459 (2d Cir.2004)). We reverse only if no reasonable factfinder could have found Appellant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. Given the sheer quantity of cigarettes purchased by Appellant and the number of such purchases, a reasonable jury could easily have concluded that he was selling them for a profit and putting at least some of the proceeds back into the smuggling operation. In other words, a jury could reasonably have found that he knowingly undertook financial transactions involving the proceeds of an unlawful activity with the intent to promote the carrying on of the unlawful activity — i.e., money laundering. 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1). Moreover, the evidence of repeated interactions between Abuhamra and several of his co-defendants sufficed to permit a reasonable jury to conclude that he had joined with them in a common money laundering scheme — i.e., that he was part of a conspiracy. See Salinas v. United States, 522 U.S. 52, 65, 118 S.Ct. 469, 139 L.Ed.2d 352 (1997).

(3) At trial, the Government attempted to introduce into evidence two in-court identifications of Ahmed, which had not been disclosed to him in response to his discovery motion. In both instances, the court below denied defense counsel’s motion for a mistrial, but struck the evidence from the record and instructed the jury to disregard it. We review a trial court’s denial of a motion to declare a mistrial for abuse of discretion. United States v. Carson, 52 F.3d 1173, 1188 (2d Cir.1995). In conducting this review, we assume “ ‘that a jury will follow an instruction to disregard inadmissible evidence inadvertently presented to it, unless there is an “overwhelming probability” that the jury will be unable to follow the court’s instructions, and a strong likelihood that the effect of the evidence would be “devastating” to the defendant.’ ” United States v. Mussaleen, 35 F.3d 692, 695 (2d Cir.1994) (quoting Greer v. Miller, 483 U.S. 756, 766 n. 8, 107 S.Ct. 3102, 97 L.Ed.2d 618 (1987)) (internal citations omitted).

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Bluebook (online)
241 F. App'x 747, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-kaid-ca2-2007.