United States v. Svetislav Vujovic

635 F. App'x 265
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedDecember 23, 2015
Docket14-4197
StatusUnpublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 635 F. App'x 265 (United States v. Svetislav Vujovic) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth 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. Svetislav Vujovic, 635 F. App'x 265 (6th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION

McKEAGUE, Circuit Judge.

Over the course of five years, Svetislav Vujovic was engaged in a scheme to defraud the St. Paul Croatian Federal Credit Union in Cleveland, Ohio. He submitted false loan applications and bribed the credit union’s Chief Operating Officer to secure loans. After the collapse of the credit union in 2010, Vujovic was charged with one count of financial-institution fraud, one count of giving gifts for procuring loans, ten counts of making false statements to a federal credit union, and two counts of money laundering. He was convicted by a jury on all fourteen counts. Vujovic now appeals, arguing that (1) the government unconstitutionally suppressed exculpatory evidence; (2) new evidence warrants a new trial; (3) the district court infringed on his constitutional right to testify; (4) the district court interfered with his rights to allocute and call witnesses at sentencing; and (5) his trial counsel was unconstitutionally'ineffective. We decline to address the merits of Vujovic’s ineffeetive-assis-tance-of-counsel claims without prejudice but otherwise affirm his conviction and sentence.

*268 I

Svetislav Vujovic is an Ohio businessman who was involved in the construction business. From 2004 to 2008, Vujovic was engaged in a scheme to defraud the St. Paul Croatian Federal Credit Union (the Credit Union) in Cleveland, Ohio. Vujovic lied on loan applications to secure loans from the Credit Union. He lied about the purpose of these loans, stating that they were going to his businesses when they instead were used personally by Vujovic to support his lifestyle. He also lied on the applications about his monthly income so that he would appear to be a stronger candidate for loans. He intentionally left sections of the loan applications blank, but signed the applications verifying that the information contained within was true and complete. He used different methods to keep his loans current without making payments, such as redirecting the proceeds from one loan account to pay another and using a method called loan reset — rolling the principal and interest into a new loan so that it looks current even though no actual payments were made. To facilitate these fraudulent activities and continue to be approved for new loans, Vujovic bribed Anthony Raguz, the Chief Operating Officer of the Credit Union.

Vujovic’s theory at trial was that he was simply an unsuccessful businessman. He secured these business loans, but his construction projects were not always successful. He pointed the finger at Anthony Raguz and argued that the government’s evidence merely showed the attempts made by Raguz and other Credit Union employees to disguise their own culpability. Vujovic used evidence of the rampant fraud at the Credit Union to argue that, to the extent he was a participant in the fraud, he was an unknowing one. The jury was unpersuaded and on May 13,2014 convicted Vujovic of all fourteen charges: one count of financial-institution fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344; one count of giving commissions or gifts for procuring loans in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 215(a)(1); ten counts of making false statements to a federal credit union in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1014;' and two counts of money laundering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1957. Vujovic was sentenced to 109 months’ imprisonment on all counts to be served concurrently, followed by three years of supervised release, as well as a $1,400 special assessment and $2,950,541.56 restitution.

II

On appeal, Vujovic has identified numerous pieces of evidence that he claims were withheld from him prior to trial and sentencing in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). Despite his litany of claims, he has not demonstrated that the prosecution violated its constitutional duty to disclose exculpatory evidence. “There is no general constitutional right to discovery in a criminal case, and Brady did not create one.” Weatherford v. Bursey, 429 U.S. 545, 559, 97 S.Ct. 837, 51 L.Ed.2d 30 (1977). To establish a Brady violation, a defendant has the burden of proving three elements: “The evidence at issue must be favorable to the accused, either because it is exculpatory, or because it is impeaching; that evidence must have been suppressed by the State, either willfully or inadvertently; and. prejudice must have ensued.” Strickler v. Greene, 527 U.S. 263, 281-82, 119 S.Ct. 1936,144 L.Ed.2d 286 (1999).

None of the evidence that Vujovic claims was unconstitutionally withheld constitutes Brady material. As an initial matter, several of the items of evidence that Vujovic has identified might not have been suppressed at all — either because the item may have never been in the government’s possession (such as Raguz’s day calendar *269 and interview notes for bank teller Katica Covic 1 ) or because the information was available to the defendant by means other than disclosure by the government (such as matters of public record). See Carter v. Bell, 218 F.3d 581, 601 (6th Cir.2000) (“Further, there is no Brady violation if the defendant knew or should have known the essential facts permitting him to take advantage of the information in question, or if the information was available to him from another source.”). However, we need not determine which of the numerous pieces of evidence were, in fact, actually suppressed, because Vujovic has failed to. show that the evidence is favorable to him or that its alleged withholding was prejudicial.

A

The allegedly withheld evidence was not exculpatory. In order to constitute Brady material, “[t]he evidence at issue must be favorable to the accused, either because it is exculpatory, or because it is impeaching.” Strickler, 527 U.S. at 281-82, 119 S.Ct. 1936. Vujovic argues that his failure to provide complete information on his applications was because they were computer-generated, but this is not exculpatory given that Vujovic signed these false loan applications to verify that the applications were complete and accurate. Most of the other evidence that Vujovic has identified is only useful to show that others were guilty of separate criminal acts — but such evidence would not show that Vujovic was innocent. For example, Vujovic refers to loans that “were secured by the assignment of shareholder accounts, some of which were nonexistent” to show that credit-union employees were creating fake loans. R. 81-2, Gojevic Investigative Interview at 1-2, Page ID 1853-54.

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Bluebook (online)
635 F. App'x 265, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-svetislav-vujovic-ca6-2015.