United States v. Sidorenko

102 F. Supp. 3d 1124, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52452, 2015 WL 1814356
District Court, N.D. California·Decided April 21, 2015·No. No. 3:14-cr-00341-CRB·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING MOTIONS TO DISMISS

CHARLES R. BREYER, District Judge

In this case, the United States government urges the application of federal criminal statutes to prosecute foreign defendants for foreign acts involving a foreign governmental entity. The government has charged Defendants Yuri Sidorenko, Alexander Vassiliev, and Mauricio Siciliano with five counts: (1) Conspiracy to Commit Honest Services Wire Fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1349; (2) Honest Services Wire Fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2,1343; (3) Conspiracy to Solicit and to Give Bribes Involving a Federal Program, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371; (4) Soliciting Bribes Involving a Federal Program, in violation of 18 U.S.C. .§§ 2, 666(a)(1)(B); and (5) Giving Bribes involving a Federal Program, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2, 666(a)(2). Two of the three defendants1 move to dismiss the Indictment (“Ind.”), arguing: (1) that the Indictment fails to state an offense because the wire fraud and bribery charges do not apply extraterritorially; (2) that the charges violate due process because there is an insufficient domestic nexus to prosecute Defendants in the United States; (3) that the wire fraud and bribery charges are defective as alleged; and (4) that Defendant Siciliano enjoys immunity from prosecution by virtue of his employment with a United Na[1126] tions specialized agency. See generally Motions to Dismiss (“MTDs”) (dkts.32-33).

The Court hereby GRANTS the Motions to Dismiss based on Defendants’ first two arguments, and does not reach the second two arguments.

1. BACKGROUND2

The International Civil Aviation Organization (“ICAO”) is a United Nations specialized agency headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Ind. ¶¶ 1, 8. One of ICAO’s responsibilities is standardizing machine-readable passports. Id. ¶ 2. The standards that ICAO established were used to determine which features would be utilized in passports in a variety "of countries, including the United States. ' Id. From 2005-2010, the' United States, a member of ICAO, made annual monetary contributions to ICAO exceeding $10,000 per year. Id. ¶¶1, 3. Those contributions constituted 25% of ICAO’s annual budget.3 Id.

Siciliano was an employee of ICAO and was specifically assigned to work in the Machine Readable Travel Documents Pro-gramme. Id. ¶8. Siciliano worked and resided in Canada, where ICAO is headquartered. Id. He held a Canadian passport but is a Venezuelan national. Id. Sidorenko and Vassiliev4 were chairmen of a Ukranián conglomerate of companies that manufactured and supplied security and identity products, called the EDAPS Consortium (“EDAPS”). Id. ¶¶ 4; 7-8.5 Sidorenko is a citizen of Ukraine, Switzerland, and St. Kitts & Nevis, but he primarily resided in Dubai during the relevant time period. Id. ¶ 6. Vassiliev also resided in Dubai, but he is a citizen of Ukraine and St. Kitts & Nevis. Id. ¶ 7.

Sidorenko and Vassiliev provided money and other things of value to Siciliano in exchange for Siciliano using his position at ICAO, in Canada, to benefit EDAPS, in Ukraine, as well as Sidorenko and Vassiliev, in Dubai, personally. Id. ¶ 10. Siciliano, working in Canada, sought to benefit the Ukrainian conglomerate EDAPS by introducing and publicizing EDAPS to government officials and entities, -by arranging for EDAPS to appear at ICAO conferences, and by endorsing EDAPS to other organizations or business contacts. Id. ¶¶ 11-12.

Siciliano assisted Vassiliev’s girlfriend in obtaining a visa to travel to Canada in 2007. Id. ¶ 15. Around the same time, Siciliano also considered arranging to obtain a visa for Sidorenko by hiring Sidorenko as a consultant for ICAO. Id. ¶ 16. Additionally, the three defendants arranged to have Defendant Siciliano’s son sent to Dubai to work for Sidorenko. Id. ¶20. During this time period, Siciliano, who worked in Canada, wrote an e-mail message to Vassiliev, residing in Dubai, seeking payment of “dues” via wire transfer to a Swiss bank account. Id. ¶ 17.

• A few years later, Siciliano, still in Canada, sent an e-mail advising Vassiliev and Sidorenko, still in Dubai, that they owed him three months’ payment. Id. ¶ 18. A [1127] few weeks after this email, Siciliano sent another email to Vassiliev referencing future projects, receiving “the fruits of [their] marketing agreement^]” and inquiring about picking up his dues. Id. ¶ 19.

All of this conduct. occurred outside of the United States between three defendants who are not United States citizens, who never worked in the United States, and whose use of wires did not reach or pass through the United States. See generally id.

II. LEGAL STANDARD

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United States v. Sidorenko, 102 F. Supp. 3d 1124, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52452, 2015 WL 1814356 (N.D. Cal. 2015).

102 F. Supp. 3d 1124 (United States v. Sidorenko) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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