Narrative Opinion Summary
The case involves an appellant indicted on 85 counts under 31 U.S.C. § 5324(a)(3) for structuring cash transactions to evade reporting requirements, with the jury convicting him on 70 counts. On appeal, the appellant contested the indictment's sufficiency, a challenge not raised at the district court level. The appellate court determined that the indictment was fundamentally flawed as it lacked the necessary factual allegations to constitute an offense under the statute. The structuring statute requires intent to evade thresholds of transactions over $10,000, which was not alleged in the indictment that charged individual transactions below this amount. The court highlighted that the proper unit of prosecution is the total amount structured, not each sub-threshold transaction, aligning with precedents from the Seventh and Tenth Circuits. Without asserting an overarching transaction exceeding $100,000 structured into smaller sums, the indictment was insufficient. Consequently, the court vacated the judgment and remanded the case with instructions to dismiss the indictment, emphasizing the necessity for an indictment to independently support each charge without relying on other counts unless explicitly stated.
Legal Issues Addressed
Amendments and Challenges to Indictmentssubscribe to see similar legal issues
Application: Amendments to an indictment require grand jury resubmission unless formal. Insufficient indictments cannot be remedied on appeal if they charge no offense.
Reasoning: Amendments to an indictment require resubmission to a grand jury unless they are merely formal.
Intent to Evade Reporting Requirementssubscribe to see similar legal issues
Application: To establish structuring, there must be intent to evade reporting thresholds, which was not demonstrated in Lang's case as individual transactions were below the $10,000 threshold.
Reasoning: The court clarifies that structuring requires intent to evade reporting thresholds, which does not apply to individual transactions below that threshold.
Sufficiency of Indictment under 31 U.S.C. § 5324(a)(3)subscribe to see similar legal issues
Application: The indictment must present essential elements of the offense, notify the defendant of charges, and allow for double jeopardy protection. In this case, the indictment was insufficient as it lacked necessary factual allegations to charge the offense under § 5324(a)(3).
Reasoning: The indictment in Lang's case was deemed insufficient as it lacked necessary factual allegations to charge the offense under § 5324(a)(3).
Unit of Prosecution for Structuring Offensessubscribe to see similar legal issues
Application: The court concludes that structuring a single larger amount into smaller transactions constitutes one substantive crime, and the indictment improperly charged separate counts for individual transactions under this threshold.
Reasoning: This document aligns with those rulings, asserting that the unit of prosecution is the total amount structured to evade reporting rather than each resultant sub-threshold transaction.