United States v. William Genao, Also Known as William Genao Frias

343 F.3d 578
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedSeptember 25, 2003
DocketDocket 02-1239
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 343 F.3d 578 (United States v. William Genao, Also Known as William Genao Frias) 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. William Genao, Also Known as William Genao Frias, 343 F.3d 578 (2d Cir. 2003).

Opinion

JOSÉ A. CABRANES, Circuit Judge.

The Government appeals from a judgment of conviction against William Genao, entered March 21, 2002 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Kimba M. Wood, Judge). Following a guilty plea, Genao stood convicted of one count of making false statements to representatives of the United States Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001, 1 and was sentenced by the District Court principally to six months of imprisonment. On appeal, the Government argues that the District Court erred in calculating Genao’s sentence when it (1) declined to invoke the cross-reference provision of U.S.S.G. § 2Bl.l(c)(3); and (2) concluded that it lacked discretion to upwardly depart pursuant to Application Note 15 to U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1 for Genao’s aggravating, non-monetary objective of obstructing a criminal investigation. We agree with the District Court that the cross-reference provision of § 2Bl.l(c)(3) was not applicable, but hold, contrary to the view of the District Court, that defendant’s aggravating, non-monetary objective did permit upward departure pursuant to Application Note 15.

background

Genao operated W.G. International, a company located in the Dominican Republic that converts currency from United States dollars to Dominican pesos. Genao and W.G. International became involved in a conspiracy that laundered over $65 million between 1995 and 1997. The conspirators used proceeds from narcotic sales to purchase food stamps on the black market in the United States, deposited the food stamps into bank accounts in the names of small grocery stores controlled by the conspirators, and received credit for the full face value of the food stamps.

The principal participants in the money laundering conspiracy were Amelfis Her *580 nandez and Reynaldo Cespedes. Hernandez operated a travel agency in Manhattan. She received cash proceeds from drug dealers and then arranged for the money to be transferred to the Dominican Republic through Genao’s company or his bank accounts in Miami. Cespedes controlled a number of small grocery stores in New York. He received narcotics proceeds from Hernandez, purchased food stamps on the black market with this money, and deposited the food stamps into his grocery stores’ bank accounts. Cespedes then wrote checks from the grocery store accounts to companies controlled by Genao and delivered the checks to Hernandez, who, in turn, delivered them to W.G. International or directly to Genao’s Miami accounts. In this manner, millions of dollars were deposited into bank accounts in Miami controlled by Genao or W.G. International. Genao then exchanged the U.S. dollars in his Miami bank accounts for pesos from Dominican “businesses” that needed United States dollars to purchase goods for import into the Dominican Republic. Most of the “businesses” in the Dominican Republic that received the United States dollars were in fact representatives of the drug traffickers.

In August 1998, the Government executed a seizure warrant and froze Genao’s accounts in Miami. On August 25, 1998 Genao met with representatives of the United States Attorney’s Office and the FBI in New York, seeking the return of the frozen funds. Genao described W.G. International as a currency exchange business that acquired United States dollars from various sources and sold them at a profit in the Dominican Republic. Genao acknowledged that he had received funds from Cespedes but denied knowing that Cespedes was receiving those funds from Hernandez or that the funds were narcotics proceeds. Genao said that his employee, Alexander Sued, managed W.G. International and was the only person who dealt with Cespedes.

Genao was arrested during the August 25, 1998 meeting on a complaint charging him with conspiring to launder money in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h). The complaint was based primarily on information provided by Cespedes, who had already been arrested and had begun cooperating with the Government prior to Genao’s meetings with the federal investigators. Genao continued the interview subsequent to his arrest and admitted to knowing that the checks Cespedes deposited into his accounts were not legitimate business proceeds but, rather, were covered by cash that Cespedes had received from Hernandez. Genao claimed that he did not become aware of the arrangement between Cespedes and Hernandez until his employee Sued informed him of it at the end of 1996 or at the beginning of 1997 — long after the checks had been deposited into his accounts. He also claimed that he told Sued to stop accepting transactions from Cespedes or Hernandez as soon as he became aware of their arrangement.

Following his August 25, 1998 meeting, Genao complied with the Government’s request to provide it with certain documents from W.G. International. These documents showed that in 1996 and 1997 W.G. International continued to accept transactions from Cespedes and Hernandez totaling more than $4 million. Genao then requested the opportunity to make an “innocence proffer,” ie., to have a meeting with the Government in the hopes of demonstrating that he had been unaware of any criminal taint to the money he received from Cespedes and Hernandez. Genao agreed to waive his right to a speedy trial, thereby permitting the Government to postpone the filing of an indictment until after Genao’s innocence proffer.

In October and November of 1998, Gen-ao met with FBI investigators and Assis *581 tant United States Attorneys on three separate occasions. Unable to reconcile the discrepancies between Genao and Ces-pedes’ accounts, the Government dismissed the money laundering complaint against Genao in December 1998.

In early January 1999, Hernandez began cooperating with the Government. She corroborated Cespedes’ account, stating that Genao introduced her to Cespedes in 1995 and that he arranged for her to deliver cash to Cespedes, to receive checks in return, and to send the checks to W.G. International in the Dominican Republic.

In January 1999, the Government convened a grand jury, which returned a four-count indictment charging Genao with, inter alia, lying to the Government during his interviews and his innocence proffers, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001. On May 16, 2000 Genao pleaded guilty to Count Four of the indictment, which charged him with violating § 1001 by falsely claiming during the November 1998 innocence proffer that he did not learn until mid-1996 that the checks drawn on Cespedes’ accounts were funded with cash Cespedes received from Hernandez. Genao’s written plea agreement contained no stipulations regarding his sentence or the application of the Guidelines.

Prior to Genao’ sentencing, the Government argued to the District Court that U.S.S.G. § 2Bl.l(c)(8), a cross-reference provision, permitted the Court to sentence Genao under U.S.S.G. § 2J1.2(c)(l), 2 the obstruction-of-justice guideline, rather than under U.S.S.G.

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Bluebook (online)
343 F.3d 578, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-william-genao-also-known-as-william-genao-frias-ca2-2003.