United States v. Young & Rubicam, Inc.

741 F. Supp. 334, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8387, 1990 WL 93895
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedFebruary 7, 1990
DocketCrim. N-89-68 (PCD)
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 741 F. Supp. 334 (United States v. Young & Rubicam, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Young & Rubicam, Inc., 741 F. Supp. 334, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8387, 1990 WL 93895 (D. Conn. 1990).

Opinion

*337 RULING ON PENDING MOTIONS

DORSEY, District Judge.

On October 6, 1989, a grand jury charged the defendants in a three count indict-ment 1 . Count One charges Young & Rubi-cam (“Y & R”), Arthur R. Klein (“Klein”), and Thomas Spangenberg (“Spangenberg”) with conspiracy to use the mails and other instrumentalities of interstate and foreign commerce to pay money to, or give things of value to Arnold Foote, Jr. (“Foote”) and Eric Anthony Abrahams (“Abrahams”) to influence them to use their positions and/or influence with the Jamaica Tourist Board (“JTB”) to obtain and retain Y & R as their advertising agency, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), 15 U.S.C. § 78dd-2. Count Two charges Y & R, Spangenberg, Abrahams and Foote with conducting an enterprise’s affairs through a pattern of racketeering in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c). Count Three charges Steven McKenna (“McKenna”) with perjury in his testimony before the grand jury on June 20, 1989. Defendants’ pre-trial motions shall be discussed seriatim.

1. Motion to Dismiss Count Two

Klein, joined by Y & R, moves to dismiss Count Two for failure to allege conduct constituting predicate offenses. Y & R, joined by Klein, moves to dismiss Count Two on two grounds: (1) Count Two does not properly charge a “pattern of racketeering activity” or a racketeering “enterprise” under RICO and (2) the RICO statute, if applicable here, is unconstitutionally vague.

(a) Predicate Acts

RICO, 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c), requires proof that defendants engaged in “racketeering activity.” The predicate offenses alleged in Count Two are multiple violations of the Travel Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1952. Section 1961(1)(B) defines “racketeering activity” as including “... any act which is indictable under ... Title 18, United States Code: ... section 1952,” the Travel Act. It is a violation of the Travel Act for any person to “[travel] in interstate or foreign commerce or [use] any facility of interstate or foreign commerce ... with intent to ... promote, manage, establish, carry on, or facilitate the promotion, ... of any unlawful activity_” 18 U.S.C. § 1952(a)(3). “Unlawful activity” is defined in § 1952(b)(2) as, inter alia, “... bribery ... in violations of the law of the state in which committed or of the United States....” The Travel Act violations alleged in Count Two are predicated upon conduct alleged to violate two bribery statutes: The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), 15 U.S.C. § 78dd-2, and the New York commercial bribery statute, N.Y. Penal Law §§ 180.00 and 180.05.

Klein claims that the FCPA cannot serve as a basis for a Travel Act violation, nor in turn as a predicate for a RICO violation. First, Klein argues that where conduct violates both a specific and a general statute, the government must prosecute the defendant under the more specific statute. United States v. Henderson, 386 F.Supp. 1048 (S.D.N.Y.1974) (mail fraud statutes inapplicable to tax evasion where more specific tax legislation proscribed the same conduct.) This case, however, has been rejected by the Ninth and Seventh Circuits and questioned by the Second Circuit. See United States v. Miller, 545 F.2d 1204, 1216 (9th Cir.1976), cert. denied, 430 U.S. 930, 97 S.Ct. 1549, 51 L.Ed.2d 774 (1977); United States v. Weatkerspoon, 581 F.2d 595, 599-600 (7th Cir.1978); United States v. Mangan, 575 F.2d 32, 49 n. 21 (2d Cir.1978), cer t. denied, 439 U.S. 931, 99 S.Ct. 320, 58 L.Ed.2d 324 (1978). The mail fraud statute has been held to be a valid RICO predicate where tax fraud or other specific statutes would cover the same conduct. See United States v. Busher, 817 F.2d 1409, 1412 (9th Cir.1987); United States v. Standard Drywall Corp., 617 F.Supp. 1283, 1295-96 (E.D.N.Y.1985).

A defendant may not be convicted and punished under two separate crimes for a single criminal act. See Whalen v. *338 United States, 445 U.S. 684, 688, 100 S.Ct. 1432, 1435, 63 L.Ed.2d 715 (1980); Bell v. United States, 349 U.S. 81, 75 S.Ct. 620, 99 L.Ed. 905 (1955); Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932). Klein argues that proof of an FCPA violation would necessarily include proof of a Travel Act violation, a conviction under both would violate Blockburger. However, the indictment does not charge defendants with substantive violations of either FCPA or the Travel Act. Count Two alleges FCPA violations as a basis for Travel Act violations, which, in turn, are alleged as predicates for the RICO offense charged. If convicted, defendants would only be punished for the RICO offense.

Next, Klein accuses the government of bootstrapping a general statute into a RICO violation instead of using FCPA, the specific statutory scheme applicable to the defendants’ conduct, because the FCPA, unlike the Travel Act, is not a RICO predicate. Klein argues that the use of a general statute as a RICO predicate instead of a specific statute applicable to defendant’s conduct is improper. See United States v. Santoro, 647 F.Supp. 153, 167-169 (E.D.N.Y.1986), aff 'd, 880 F.2d 1319 (2d Cir.1989). Having found no breach of duty to support a mail fraud prosecution, the court, in dictum, questioned the government’s failure to charge the defendants with the various crimes more directly implicated, id. at 167, noting that none of such crimes were RICO predicates. Id. There is no claim here that defendants’ conduct does not support a Travel Act violation 2 .

The mail fraud statute may be a RICO predicate even though defendants’ conduct may violate another, more specific statute which is not a RICO predicate. See Busker, 817 F.2d at 1412 (mailing of fraudulent tax returns constitutes mail fraud RICO predicate even though tax fraud is not a RICO predicate); United States v. Computer Sciences Corp., 689 F.2d 1181, 1186—88 (4th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1105, 103 S.Ct. 729, 74 L.Ed.2d 953 (1983) (mail fraud and wire charges could be brought although conduct was also charged under False Claims Act); United States v. Boffa,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
741 F. Supp. 334, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8387, 1990 WL 93895, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-young-rubicam-inc-ctd-1990.