United States v. Napout

332 F.Supp.3d 533

UNITED STATES of America,

v.Juan Angel NAPOUT, et al., Defendants.

15-CR-252 (PKC)

United States District Court, E.D. New York.

Signed June 22, 2018

Amanda Hector, Brian D. Morris, Evan M. Norris, Keith Daniel Edelman, Paul A. Tuchmann, Samuel P. Nitze, Girish Karthik Srinivasan, Kaitlin Teresa Farrell, M. Kristin Mace, Nadia Shihata, Tanya Hajjar, United States Attorneys Office Eastern District of New York, Brooklyn, NY, for United States of America.

Edward C. O'Callaghan, Rijie Ernie Gao, Clifford Chance US LLP, Charles Allen Stillman, Bradley Gershel, James Alfred Mitchell, Ballard Spahr LLP, Sean Patrick Casey, Daniel Joseph Chirlin, Jeffery Li Ding, Walden Macht & Haran LLP, Lindsey Weiss Harris, Kobre & Kim LLP, Jenny Rebeca Kramer, Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP, Katherine Anne Skeele, Holland & Knight LLP, Justin S. Weddle, Brown Rudnick LLP, Justine A. Harris, Sher Tremonte LLP, Valerie Alice Gotlib, Yu Han, Sher Tremonte LLP, Lee Ginsberg, Louis M. Freeman, Freeman, Nooter & Ginsberg, Edward J.M. Little, Marc Alan Weinstein, Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, New York, NY, Samuel Rosenthal, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP, Manuel J. Retureta, Retureta & Wassem, P.L.L.C., Washington, DC, Thomas E. Zeno, Pro Hac Vice, Cincinnati, OH, David Torres-Siegrist, Law Offices of Torres-Siegrist, Pasadena, CA, David I. Goldstein, Melissa Nicole, Law Office of David I. Goldstein, Chestnut Ridge, NY, Julio C. Barbosa, Pro Hac Vice, Barbosa Legal, John Couriel, Kobre & Kim LLP, Andres Rivero, Daniel Sox, Pro Hac Vice, Jorge Alejandro Mestre, Rivero Mestre LLP, Elliot H. Scherker, Pro Hac Vice, Jacqueline Becerra, Greenberg Traurig, P.A., Silvia Pinera-Vazquez, Pinera-Vazquez Law Firm, Miami, FL, Lee David Vartan, Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi PC, West Orange, NJ, A. John Pappalardo, Greenberg Traurig, LLP, Boston, MA, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM & ORDER REGARDING POST-TRIAL MOTIONS

(Dkts. 887, 888, 889)

PAMELA K. CHEN, United States District Judge:

Defendants Juan Angel Napout, Jose Maria Marin, and Manuel Burga ("Defendants") are among numerous individuals charged with racketeering conspiracy and other offenses allegedly undertaken to enrich themselves by leveraging their various positions in the Federation Internationale de Football Association ("FIFA"); its continental, regional, and national affiliates; and certain sports marketing companies. In the operative indictment (Dkt. 604): (1) Napout was charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, and two counts of money laundering conspiracy; (2) Marin was charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy, three counts of wire fraud conspiracy, and three counts of money laundering conspiracy; and (3) Burga was charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy. After a six-week trial: (1) Napout was convicted of three counts and acquitted of two counts; (2) Marin was convicted of six counts and acquitted of one count; and (3) Burga was acquitted of the sole count against him.

Napout and Marin now move under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29 for judgments of acquittal, or, alternatively, for a new trial pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 33. For the reasons stated herein, Napout's and Marin's motions are denied in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

A. The Indictments

On May 20, 2015, a grand jury in the Eastern District of New York returned a 47-count indictment charging 14 individuals, including Marin, with racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering offenses, among other crimes, in connection with alleged bribe payments made to FIFA officials in exchange for valuable broadcasting and marketing contracts. (Dkt. 1.) On November 25, 2015, the grand jury returned a 92-count superseding indictment ("S-1 indictment") charging sixteen additional defendants, including Napout and Burga, with the same racketeering conspiracy, among other crimes. (Dkt. 102.) On June 14, 2017, the grand jury returned a Second Superseding Indictment ("S-2 indictment") against Napout, Burga, and Marin, which was the operative indictment for their trial. (Dkt. 604.) The S-2 indictment contained seven counts.

Count 1 charged Napout, Marin, and Burga with conspiracy to engage in racketeering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c) & (d). The alleged enterprise consisted of FIFA, its six constituent continental confederations, affiliated regional federations, national member associations, and sports marketing companies. As predicate acts, the S-2 indictment alleged wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343, money laundering and money laundering conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1956-57, interstate and foreign travel in aid of racketeering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1952, and obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512. (Dkt. 604 ¶ 123.)

Counts 2 and 3 charged Napout and Marin with wire fraud conspiracy (Count 2) and money laundering conspiracy (Count 3) in connection with the Copa Libertadores soccer tournament, an annual club soccer tournament organized by FIFA's continental confederation for South America, the Confederacion Sudamerica de Futbol ("CONMEBOL"), of which Defendants were officers.

Counts 4 and 5 charged Marin with wire fraud conspiracy (Count 4) and money laundering conspiracy (Count 5) in connection with the Copa do Brasil soccer tournament, an annual soccer tournament organized by Brazil's soccer confederation, the Confederacao Brasileira de Futbol ("CBF"), of which Marin was the president between March 2012 and April 2015.

Counts 6 and 7 charged Napout and Marin with wire fraud conspiracy (Count 6) and money laundering conspiracy (Count 7) in connection with the Copa America soccer tournament, an annual international soccer tournament organized by CONMEBOL.

B. Pre-Trial Rulings

The Court made several pre-trial rulings that bear on the present motions. By order dated February 17, 2017, the Court denied Napout's motion to dismiss the S-1 indictment as an impermissible extraterritorial application of the federal racketeering statute, the federal wire fraud statute, and the federal money laundering statute. See United States v. Hawit , No. 15-cr-252, 2017 WL 663542 (E.D.N.Y. Feb. 17, 2017). In denying Napout's motion, the Court held, inter alia , that the S-1 indictment alleged permissible domestic applications of the wire fraud statute and extraterritorial applications of the money laundering statute. See id. at *4-8. By extension, the Court also held that the S-1 indictment adequately alleged a RICO conspiracy based on domestic wire fraud predicate acts and extraterritorial money laundering predicate acts. See id. at *9-10. The Court advised the parties, however, that Second Circuit caselaw—most notably, European Community v. RJR Nabisco, Inc. , 764 F.3d 129 (2d Cir. 2014), rev'd on other grounds, RJR Nabisco, Inc. v. European Community , ––– U.S. ––––, 136 S.Ct. 2090, 195 L.Ed.2d 476 (2016), and Petroleos Mexicanos v. SK Eng'g & Constr. Co. , 572 Fed.Appx. 60, 61 (2014) (summary order)—has left undetermined the "domestic" reach of the wire fraud statute, thus putting all parties on notice of the importance of evidence concerning the "domestic" nature of the wire fraud charges against Defendants. See Hawit , 2017 WL 663542 at *5.

By order dated October 17, 2017, the Court ruled that the government, subject to specific objections at trial, would be permitted to present evidence that Napout and alleged co-conspirators engaged in obstruction of justice to conceal their criminal conduct. See United States v. Napout , No. 15-cr-252, 2017 WL 4685089 at *3-7 (E.D.N.Y. Oct. 17, 2017) (" Napout I "). Among other things, the Court ruled that the government could seek to introduce evidence concerning "the removal of electronic devices from Napout's CONMEBOL office, at Napout's direction, on the morning of Napout's December 3, 2015 arrest in Zurich, Switzerland and the subsequent recovery and search of those devices by U.S. law enforcement." Id. at *2-7. The Court ruled that evidence in this category was generally admissible, both as evidence of the existence of a RICO conspiracy, as well as evidence of Napout's "consciousness of guilt," except that, to the extent the government sought to introduce this evidence to prove the existence of a RICO conspiracy, the government would also need to submit evidence that at least one person involved in the obstruction, other than Napout, was a member of the charged conspiracy prior to the alleged obstruction. Id. at *5-7 & n.7. The Court also ruled that evidence in this category was not unduly prejudicial, because the "acts of obstruction are really no different than Defendants' alleged acts of bribery, wire fraud, and money laundering: they all involve non-violent acts of dishonesty, deceit, and concealment." Id. at *7.

Jury selection in Defendants' trial began on November 6, 2017. On November 8, 2017, before the end of jury selection, the Court ruled from the bench on an omnibus motion in limine by the government (Dkt. 718). Among other things, the Court ruled, over Defendants' objections, that certain covertly-recorded audiotapes proffered by the government would be admissible at trial, so long as the government laid the proper evidentiary foundation. (Hr'g Tr. 55-127, Nov. 8, 2017.) The Court also ruled that evidence and argument about foreign law, i.e. , whether commercial bribery was illegal in Defendants' home countries, would be categorically excluded from the trial, holding that the evidence would generally not be relevant in this case under Federal Rule of Evidence ("FRE") 401, except for the following narrow purpose: for purposes of a charge of honest services wire fraud, a defendant could potentially "defend on [the element of] the intent to violate [his] fiduciary duty based on saying [he] never saw the [FIFA] rules, ... no one told [him] about the [FIFA] rules, and ... [he] assumed that [the FIFA rules] were somehow consistent...