United States v. Rex C. Cauble, Individually and Doing Business as Cauble Enterprises

706 F.2d 1322
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedAugust 11, 1983
Docket82-2087
StatusPublished
Cited by209 cases

This text of 706 F.2d 1322 (United States v. Rex C. Cauble, Individually and Doing Business as Cauble Enterprises) 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. Rex C. Cauble, Individually and Doing Business as Cauble Enterprises, 706 F.2d 1322 (5th Cir. 1983).

Opinion

*1329 ALVIN B. RUBIN, Circuit Judge:

Rex C. Cauble appeals his conviction on a ten-count indictment charging him with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute (RICO) and the Travel Act and with misapplication of bank funds. Cauble, a wealthy Texas businessman, was in effect accused of being the range boss of the highly publicized “Cowboy Mafia,” a loosely-knit group responsible for importing and distributing over 147,000 pounds of marijuana from 1976 through 1978. 1 The indictment charged Cauble with substantive violations of RICO 2 based on conduct of an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity and investment of income from racketeering activity in an interstate enterprise; conspiracy to violate RICO; three violations of the Travel Act, 3 and four counts of misapplication of bank funds. 4 The jury convicted him on all *1330 counts and found that Cauble’s share of Cauble Enterprises should be forfeited. The trial judge imposed a five-year sentence on Count One and concurrent five-year sentences on the other counts and ordered the forfeiture. Cauble’s appeal raises myriad challenges to the indictment, the sufficiency of the evidence adduced at trial, and the legality of the forfeiture. Having reviewed the sixteen-volume' record, we conclude that the trial was fair, the evidence was sufficient, and the assertions of error are without merit. We, therefore, affirm the judgment of conviction and forfeiture.

I. The RICO Claims

A. Background

Congress adopted the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations provisions 5 “to provide a blueprint for federal action against organized crime....” 6 Although it suffered initially from limited use, RICO is now a frequently-employed arrow in the federal prosecutor’s crime-fighting quiver. RICO’s application and effectiveness have been enhanced by the judicial consensus that it may be used even though no organized crime activity is charged 7 and by the Supreme Court’s decision that it applies not only to legitimate enterprises conducted through a pattern of racketeering activity, but to wholly illegitimate enterprises as well. 8

1. What RICO Prohibits

RICO’s purpose is “the imposition of enhanced criminal penalties and new civil sanctions to provide new legal remedies for all types of organized criminal behavior, that is, enterprise criminality — from simple political corruption to sophisticated white-collar crime schemes to traditional Mafia-type endeavors.” 9 RICO does not, however, criminalize conduct that was legal before its enactment. Its application depends on the existence of racketeering activity violating some other criminal statute, state or federal. 10

Section 1962(a) of the statute prohibits the use of illegally-derived funds to acquire or maintain an interest in an enterprise by *1331 legal means. 11 Section 1962(c) proscribes the illegal use of an enterprise. Section 1962(d) makes illegal a conspiracy to violate RICO’s substantive provisions, requiring the government to prove that the defendant agreed to participate in the enterprise’s affairs through a pattern of racketeering. Each section requires that the enterprise affect interstate commerce.

The government establishes a § 1962(a) violation by proving the existence of an enterprise, the defendant’s derivation of income from a pattern of racketeering activity, and the use of any part of that income in acquiring an interest in or operating the enterprise. The government establishes a § 1962(c) violation by proving the existence of an enterprise, the defendant’s employment by or association with that enterprise, and the defendant’s conduct of or participation in the conduct of the enterprise’s affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity. 12 Because this case requires us to examine the proof necessary to demonstrate both the existence of an enterprise and the connection of a defendant to it, we discuss each element briefly.

2. Enterprise

The statute states: “ ‘enterprise’ includes any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other legal entity, and any union or group of individuals associated in fact although not a legal entity.” 13 The Supreme Court has held that this language encompasses both wholly legal entities and completely illegal associations-in-fact. 14 But “[t]he ‘enterprise’ is not the ‘pattern of racketeering activity’; it is an entity separate and apart from the pattern of activity in which it engages.” 15 Therefore, in every case the government must prove not only that there was a pattern of racketeering activity but that it was conducted through an enterprise as thus defined.

In this ease the indictment charged that Cauble Enterprises, a legal partnership consisting of Cauble, his wife, and his son, was the enterprise used in violation of both §§ 1962(a) and (e). 16

3. Pattern of Racketeering Activity

The statute defines a “pattern of racketeering activity” as “at least two acts of racketeering activity .. . the last of which occurred within ten years ... after the commission of a prior act of racketeering activity.” 17 “Racketeering activity” includes an array of crimes that violate either state or federal law. 18

4. Nexus Between the Enterprise and the Racketeering Activity

RICO criminalizes the conduct of an enterprise through a pattern of racketeer *1332 ing activity and not merely the defendant’s engaging in racketeering activity. 19 Therefore, there must be a nexus between the enterprise, the defendant, and the pattern of racketeering activity. The mere fact that a defendant works for a legitimate enterprise and commits racketeering acts while on the business premises does not establish that the affairs of the enterprise have been conducted “through” a pattern of racketeering activity. 20

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Bluebook (online)
706 F.2d 1322, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-rex-c-cauble-individually-and-doing-business-as-cauble-ca5-1983.