United States v. Vogt

713 F. Supp. 847, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14718, 1987 WL 54443
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. North Carolina
DecidedDecember 24, 1987
DocketCr-86-199-01-G
StatusPublished

This text of 713 F. Supp. 847 (United States v. Vogt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Vogt, 713 F. Supp. 847, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14718, 1987 WL 54443 (M.D.N.C. 1987).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

BULLOCK, District Judge.

Defendant David Jack Vogt, Jr., was charged in the first three counts of a four-count superseding indictment handed down on January 5, 1987, which also named Burton Robert Levey and William Carl Ray as defendants. Count One alleged that Vogt violated 18 U.S.C. § 1962(a) by knowingly and willfully investing or using income or proceeds derived directly or indirectly from a pattern of racketeering activity in- an enterprise engaged in or affecting interstate commerce. The predicate racketeering activity alleged was multiple violations of 18 U.S.C. § 201(c)(3), to wit, knowingly, intentionally and corruptly receiving and agreeing to receive things of value in return for doing or omitting to do acts in violation of his official duty as an officer of the United States Customs Service. Count Two alleged that Vogt conspired with Le-vey and Ray to violate 18 U.S.C. § 1962(a). Count Three alleged that Vogt conspired with Levey, Ray, and others to violate 18 U.S.C. § 371 by “impeding, impairing, obstructing and defeating the lawful functions” of the Internal Revenue Service in ascertaining, computing, assessing and collecting federal income taxes.

The indictment also alleged that by virtue of violating Section 1962 Vogt and Ray were subject to the criminal forfeiture provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 1963(a)(1), (2), and (3), and described several items allegedly forfeitable.

The evidence presented by the government in the case, consistent with its theory of prosecution, established that Defendant Vogt, after accepting bribe money from drug smugglers in exchange for confidential customs service information, concealed this money through the use of off-shore accounts, domestic and off-shore corporations, and the utilization of the law firm trust accounts of his Florida and North Carolina attorneys, co-defendants Levey and Ray, and invested the money in acquiring assets in Florida, North Carolina, and elsewhere. After a trial which continued for almost three months, the jury re *850 turned a verdict on June 18, 1987, finding Vogt guilty of Counts One and Three. The jury acquitted Vogt on Count Two and acquitted Levey and Ray on all applicable counts.

Having been convicted of violating Section 1962 Vogt is subject to the criminal forfeiture provisions of Section 1963(a). Vogt knowingly and voluntarily agreed to a bench trial on the forfeiture issue, thereby waiving his right to a jury determination under Rule 31(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Vogt has been awaiting sentence pending the court’s determinations as to forfeiture.

Defendant requested that the court make specific findings of fact on the forfeiture issue. Based on the evidence produced at trial the court deems the findings of fact set out below to have been established by proof beyond a reasonable doubt. In any trial of this length, however, involving ninety witnesses and approximately 500 exhibits, it is not possible to enumerate every shred of evidence supporting each finding; the court, in making references to specific evidence supporting the findings below, does not suggest that the evidence enumerated is exclusive, and that there are not additional facts and circumstances leading to the same finding or conclusion.

FINDINGS OF FACT

I.Background

A. The Bribes

1. From 1971 to early 1979 Defendant David Jack Vogt, Jr., was employed by the United States Department of the Treasury as a customs official for the United States Customs Service in the south Florida area.

2. Defendant first met Philip Frederick Keidaish in May 1974 when Defendant arrested Keidaish on a sojourn violation for illegally taking an ex-military aircraft out of the country.

3. Beginning sometime after the sojourn arrest in 1974 Keidaish and Vogt became friends, during a time when Keidaish was involved in an extensive smuggling operation involving numerous flights bringing multiple ton loads of marijuana into the United States from South America.

4. Beginning sometime after the sojourn arrest in 1974 and continuing until late 1978 Keidaish made cash payments to Vogt in United States currency approximately seven times, averaging in excess of $100,000.00, in exchange for information from Vogt pertaining to Customs Service surveillance and “watch lists” of suspected drug smugglers.

5. Keidaish and his associates, including Theodore DeLisi, his partner in several smuggling flights, used the information Defendant provided in making their arrangements to import marijuana from South America by plane, and at least twice relied on Defendant’s information in changing plans.

6. Keidaish testified credibly about the smuggling operation, his leadership role in it, and his bribery of Vogt. The court credits Keidaish’s testimony, and when considered along with that of Theodore DeLisi, James Wilson, Harry Hill, James DeVon, and others, finds that it establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that Vogt received substantial cash bribes from the Keidaish smuggling organization in exchange for supplying confidential information to Kei-daish.

B. Tracing the Racketeering Income— Defendant’s Use of Off-Shore Accounts and Attorneys’ Trust Accounts

1. Burton R. Levey was and is an attorney in Miami, Florida, and during the 1970’s and early 1980’s was a partner with Leonard Levenstein and others in the four-to-six-person law firm of Levey, Leven-stein, Cowan & Rubenstein. Levey represented Philip Keidaish in a variety of legal matters during the 1970’s, and incorporated several off-shore corporations in the islands for Keidaish. Levey represented Keidaish in purchases of assets through off-shore corporations including land in Polk County, Florida, purchased in the name of a Netherlands Antilles corporation, Worthington, N.V. Keidaish also owned airplanes which he held in corporate *851 names. Keidaish did not hold assets in his own name because he did not want to report assets in excess of his income to the Internal Revenue Service, and thus presented himself as an “agent” of certain corporations rather than as the owner. Keidaish laundered money through offshore bank accounts and the Levey law firm trust account in an attempt to hide assets derived from illicit income.

2. Leonard Levenstein did a substantial amount of corporate work through offshore corporations and banks for Theodore DeLisi, Keidaish’s partner in some of his smuggling operations. Levenstein personally took illegal money, accompanied by Levey on at least one occasion, to the Bank of Nova Scotia in Freeport, Bahamas, for Theodore DeLisi. The law firm often wire transferred funds from the Bank of Nova Scotia back into the firm trust account.

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Bluebook (online)
713 F. Supp. 847, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14718, 1987 WL 54443, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-vogt-ncmd-1987.