U.S. v. Johnson

Record contained sufficient evidence to support jury’s guilty verdict on wire fraud and money laundering charges stemming from scheme in which one defendant, as employee of city’s Land Bank, steered at below market prices purchases of abandoned properties in Land Bank to certain non-profit organizations which, in turn, sold said properties at market prices and then split proceeds of said sales with defendants and gave kickbacks for steering properties through Land Bank. While defendant-Land Bank employee argued that his specific intent to commit fraud was not established,since he did not get paid for something that he would not have normally done while performing services for Land Bank, defendant admitted that he had intended to earn money from Land Bank sales. Also, his mistake in believing that his actions were not illegal was not defense to honest services fraud. Too, record contained evidence of straightforward quid pro quo scheme in which defendant-Land Bank employee intended to deprive city of his honest services by accepting kickbacks from third-parties who relied on him to facilitate sales of valuable properties at low cost. Moreover, Dist. Ct. did not err in failing to give jury defendants’ proffered “good-faith” instruction, since charged offenses already required jury to find existence of bad faith. Finally, Dist. Ct. did not err in imposing sentencing enhancement under section 2C1.1(b)(3) of USSG due to defendant’s sensitive position at Land Bank where Land Bank employee exercised discretion and influence in transferring Land Bank properties.