U.S. v. Orlando

Record contained sufficient evidence to support defendant’s conviction on charge of conspiracy to commit extortion in violation of 18 USC section 1951, arising out of defendant’s attempt to collect debt from various debtors on behalf of third-party by using threats of physical violence. While defendant argued that although he had knowledge of single attempt he made to collect debt of one debtor, he was unaware of overarching conspiracy that involved two other attempts to collect debts on behalf of third-party, record contained sufficient evidence to establish that defendant was aware of said overarching conspiracy, where: (1) all three incidents occurred within short time period and concerned common method of debt collection and identical goals; and (2) defendant assisted others in locating individual, who could not be found by others in prior attempt to collect debt. Ct. further rejected defendant’s claim that his encounter with debtor was too tepid to constitute act of extortion, where incident lasted five minutes and ended with handshake, since: (1) defendant and two others came unannounced to debtor’s office, stood over him and blocked his exit from office; (2) defendant demanded that debtor call creditor to tell him that he (debtor) had “fucked him” and that defendant would deal with debtor thereafter; and (3) debtor’s testimony that he was frightened by said encounter and was concerned for his safety was sufficient to allow jury to interpret defendant’s conduct as exploiting fear to obtain financial gain.