United States v. Klein

216 F. App'x 84
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedFebruary 5, 2007
DocketNos. 05-3443-cr(L), 05-4199-cr(CON)
StatusPublished

This text of 216 F. App'x 84 (United States v. Klein) 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. Klein, 216 F. App'x 84 (2d Cir. 2007).

Opinion

SUMMARY ORDER

Isaac Dayan appeals from his conviction by a jury and sentence before Judge Baer for one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, one count of bank fraud in connection with a check-kiting scheme, and one count of bank fraud for fraudulently obtaining a loan. The facts and procedural history are recounted in our opinion addressing appellant’s claim of a defective indictment and of error in the restitution order, filed this day (February 5, 2007).

With regard to his conviction, Dayan argues that: (i) it was an impermissible constructive amendment to the indictment to allow the jury to convict on findings that the loan application was false in any respect but sales records; (ii) Count Two did not state an offense, and the government’s evidence on Count Two was insufficient as a matter of law; (iii) the jury should not have been given a conscious avoidance instruction; (iv) the government should not have been allowed to present evidence of Dayan’s transfers of money from his business accounts to his brokerage accounts; (v) the jury instructions on bank fraud were erroneous; and (vi) the jury should not have been told that it could convict Dayan of bank fraud against an Antwerp bank that was not proven to be a financial institution within the meaning of the bank fraud statute. We conclude that these arguments lack merit and affirm.

a) Constructive Amendment of an Indictment

Count Four of the indictment charged Dayan with bank fraud for submitting a loan application to Fleet National Bank that “falsely and fraudulently reported sales of approximately $8,660,505 for the year 1999” for his business Fortune Diamond Importers. Dayan argues that he was convicted on Count Four because the government relied at trial on other false statements in his application, such as the statement that he owed no back taxes.

Judge Baer instructed the jury that it could convict on finding any false statement in the loan application that was material to the scheme. When the jury asked during deliberations whether it could convict on Count Four based on false statements in the loan application other than the sales figures, the judge sent the jury a copy of the instructions summarizing the bank fraud charges and stating the elements of bank fraud.

To demonstrate that an indictment was constructively amended, the defendant must show “that either the proof at trial or the trial court’s jury instructions so altered an essential element of the charge that, upon review, it is uncertain whether the defendant was convicted of conduct that was the subject of the grand jury’s indictment.” United States v. Salmonese, 352 [87]*87F.3d 608, 620 (2d Cir.2003) (internal quotation marks omitted). “The Fifth Amendment’s indictment clause prohibits ‘constructive amendments’ of an indictment when the government’s evidence and the jury instructions ‘modify essential elements of the offense charged to the point that there is a substantial likelihood that the defendant may have been convicted of an offense other than the one charged by the grand jury.’ ” LanFranco v. Murray, 313 F.3d 112, 118 n. 1 (2d Cir.2002). An “essential element” of the offense is modified only when the defendant was not “given notice of the core of criminality to be proven at trial.” See id. (internal quotation marks omitted). The evidence at trial must “broaden[] the basis of conviction beyond that charged in the indictment.” United States v. Patino, 962 F.2d 263, 265 (2d Cir.1992).

By contrast, a variance occurs where “the charging terms of the indictment are left unaltered, but the evidence offered at trial proves facts materially different from those alleged in the indictment.” United States v. Thomas, 274 F.3d 655, 670 (2d Cir.2001) (internal quotation marks omitted). A variance is not prejudicial, and not grounds for reversal, “where the allegation and proof substantially correspond, where the variance is not of a character that could have misled the defendant at the trial, and where the variance is not such as to deprive the accused of his right to be protected against another prosecution for the same offense.” United States v. Mucciante, 21 F.3d 1228, 1236 (2d Cir.1994) (internal quotation marks omitted).

The false sales figures were contained within a “to wit” clause, and our holdings show that details contained in a “to wit” clause do not per se bar a trial court from instructing a jury that it may convict even if only related and unmentioned details were proven at trial. See United States v. Rivera, 415 F.3d 284, 287 (2d Cir.2005) (constructive amendment, variance); United States v. Danielson, 199 F.3d 666, 669 (2d Cir.1999) (constructive amendment). Each of these decisions held that deviation from the details described in the “to wit” clauses was not fatal to the conviction.

Nor was there any prejudicial variance. Although the government did elicit an admission from Dayan that he had failed to report his tax liability on the loan application to Fleet, they also devoted substantial time and testimony to their original theory that he falsified his sales figures on the application. There is simply no risk of appellant’s defense having been impaired by a lack of notice of what crimes were charged. Further, the identification of the loan applications in the indictment clearly avoids the risk of Dayan being tried twice for the same offenses.

b) Offense Stated in Count Two

We review a claim that an indictment does not state an offense only to determine whether the indictment “charges a crime with sufficient precision to inform the defendant of the charges he must meet and with enough detail that he may plead double jeopardy in a future prosecution based on the same set of events.” United States v. Walsh, 194 F.3d 37, 44 (2d Cir.1999) (internal quotation marks omitted). An indictment is sufficient if “it, first, contains the elements of the offense charged and fairly informs a defendant of the charge against which he must defend, and, second, enables him to plead an acquittal or conviction in bar of future prosecutions for the same offense.” Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. 87, 117, 94 S.Ct. 2887, 41 L.Ed.2d 590 (1974).

Dayan argues that the indictment failed to allege that the checks that he received from others and deposited were not covered by funds in the others’ accounts. He [88]*88also argues that it failed to allege the false representations to a financial institution necessary to commit “embellished” check-kiting under 18 U.S.C. § 1344(2), which requires false representations in addition to check-kiting itself. See United States v. Burnett, 10 F.3d 74, 78-79 (2d Cir.1993).

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Related

Hamling v. United States
418 U.S. 87 (Supreme Court, 1974)
Johnson v. United States
520 U.S. 461 (Supreme Court, 1997)
Neder v. United States
527 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1999)
Zedner v. United States
547 U.S. 489 (Supreme Court, 2006)
United States v. John Patino
962 F.2d 263 (Second Circuit, 1992)
United States v. Roger Burnett
10 F.3d 74 (Second Circuit, 1993)
United States v. Timothy M. Mucciante
21 F.3d 1228 (Second Circuit, 1994)
United States v. John Walsh
194 F.3d 37 (Second Circuit, 1999)
United States v. Arthur Danielson
199 F.3d 666 (Second Circuit, 1999)
United States v. Ramse Thomas
274 F.3d 655 (Second Circuit, 2001)
United States v. Marvin T. Mitchell
328 F.3d 77 (Second Circuit, 2003)
United States v. Bolajoko Aina-Marshall
336 F.3d 167 (Second Circuit, 2003)
United States v. Jacob Zedner
401 F.3d 36 (Second Circuit, 2005)
United States v. Pedro Rivera
415 F.3d 284 (Second Circuit, 2005)
United States v. Salameh
152 F.3d 88 (Second Circuit, 1998)
United States v. Salmonese
352 F.3d 608 (Second Circuit, 2003)
United States v. Young
745 F.2d 733 (Second Circuit, 1984)

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Bluebook (online)
216 F. App'x 84, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-klein-ca2-2007.