U.S. v. Glantz, 87-1121

• Decision Date: 09 December 1987
• Docket Number: No. 87-1121,87-1121
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Ronald Henry GLANTZ, Defendant, Appellant. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 1

847 F.2d 1

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Ronald Henry GLANTZ, Defendant, Appellant.

No. 87-1121.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Heard Dec. 9, 1987.

Decided May 16, 1988.

John A. MacFadyen, Providence, R.I., for defendant, appellant.

John M. Campbell, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Public Integrity Section, Crim. Div., with whom Sara M. Lord, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Public Integrity Section, Criminal Div., and William F. Weld, Asst. Atty. Gen., Criminal Div., Washington, D.C., were on brief, for appellee.

Before COFFIN, BOWNES and TORRUELLA, Circuit Judges.

TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge.

Ronald Glantz appeals his conviction of perjury and conspiracy to obstruct justice in connection with testimony before a federal grand jury. He argues that the district court failed to recognize that one of his false statements before the grand jury was "literally true" and thus not perjurious as a matter of law. He also claims the district court committed reversible error by giving faulty jury instructions. We disagree and affirm the convictions.

I

When the convoluted business dealings that ultimately led to this prosecution began, Mr. Glantz was a part owner of Eticam Corporation, a company involved in importing foreign waste treatment technology. This company needed financing for its projects. To that end, it contracted with Financial Resources, Inc. to create a third corporation, Eticam Programs, Inc. (EPI). Financial Resources itself was formed by several investors apparently for the sole purpose of creating EPI. These investors included several characters who would play a role in Mr. Glantz' downfall: Joseph Guido, Young Sik Woo, and, especially, Jacob Perl. Their role within EPI was to locate sources of funding for Eticam projects. Eticam and Financial Resources each owned fifty percent of EPI.

In early 1982, Eticam was looking for a location in Rhode Island to build a waste treatment facility. Glantz contacted Michael Farina, a longtime friend and real estate broker, for assistance. Mr. Farina informed Glantz of a piece of property in Warwick, Rhode Island (the "Knight Street property") which could satisfy the firm's needs. This property was owned by Joseph and Anna Migliaccio and Anthony Capuano (or, as referred to by most of the individuals involved in this case, "the Migliaccios and Capuanos," a term we adopt for purposes of this opinion). Farina would later testify that he told Glantz the property was worth approximately $300,000 but that he, Farina, could probably purchase it for less than $200,000. According to Farina, they then agreed that Glantz would receive fifty percent of any profit Farina realized on the sale of the land to Eticam. Farina subsequently paid $300 for an option to buy the property.

In the spring of 1982, Glantz told Perl about the Knight Street property and informed him that it could be purchased for $300,000. Perl passed this information on to his co-investor in Financial Resources, Young Sik Woo. Woo then agreed with Hung Sik Woo (collectively the "Woos") to buy the land for $300,000 and resell it to EPI for $360,000. Perl was to share this profit. The record suggests that none of the individuals in this menagerie of profit-seekers fully disclosed their potential private profit from the land transaction which ostensibly was to be for the collective benefit of EPI, Eticam, and Financial Resources.

On July 1, 1982, there was a double closing on the Knight Street property. First, Farina purchased the property from the Migliaccios and Capuanos for $150,000. He then resold the property to the Woos for $314,000. (The cost over $300,000 was part of a sewer fee). The Woos were not present at the closing but were represented by Glantz as their attorney. Because of fees associated with the closings, the actual amount payed to Farina when the proceeds from the sales were distributed was approximately $141,000.

Farina's wife, Barbara, subsequently deposited these proceeds into their bank account and, on the same day, prepared a check payable to Ronald Glantz in the amount of $70,350. On the check, she wrote the notation "consulting fee." Mr. Farina would testify that this amount represented one-half of his $140,700 profit on the Knight Street property sale: $141,000 less the $300 non-refundable deposit he had payed Mr. Migliaccio.

The relationship between the EPI parties soon deteriorated. In October, Eticam claimed, and an arbitrator agreed, that Financial Resources had breached the EPI contract by failing to secure financing for Eticam projects. Around the same time, Perl, spurred by suspicion or vindictiveness, began accumulating evidence of Glantz' secret profits from the Knight Street property deal. He obtained copies of the deeds which showed that Farina had purchased the land for $150,000 and that it was Farina, not the Migliaccios and Capuanos, who had sold the land to the Woos. He also searched Glantz' desk, discovering that Glantz had received the $70,350 check from Farina just after the closing. Perl would testify that he soon thereafter privately asked Glantz about Farina's apparent profit on the deal and was told that this money had been passed on in cash to the sellers of the land.

Unsatisfied and questing for further evidence of impropriety, Perl set up a meeting between Glantz and the Financial Resources investors. Perl wore a hidden tape recorder at the meeting. The following are excerpts from the conversation Perl recorded:

PERL: And there is more than that. Bank asked for some documentation, which we obtained from Pari, and aah ... they also made the comment about a very strange transaction. So we basically would like to have you go through the transaction and explain what ... what happened and why. So everybody understands.

* * *

* * *

GLANTZ: Well. All right. Two things. Number one with regard to the transaction. There was a double closing of the land. A double closing on the land. And I don't know the figures, but the figures you would have in the file, whatever it was, and that was for tax considerations on the property. (Unintelligible) six families involved ... in fact, where there were more than six people, but there was other families involved. As to what they bought the land for, and it went through, that stays here. So you know.

PERL: Yeah.

GLANTZ: That's for ... that's, that was for governmental reasons and tax reasons, tax considerations. But they were paid $314,000 for the property. Okay?

PERL: Yeah, I have the things from aah ... what's his name, from Pari.

GLANTZ: Okay.

PERL: And in the things there is about hundred ... over $140,000 that was paid to Farina ... according to that. That's the money that we need explained.

GLANTZ: That's the double closing. That money was a pass through.

PERL: So where did it go to?

GLANTZ: It went right back to the people ... in cash.

* * *

* * *

PERL: So are you saying that [Farina] did not get compensated by us ... at all?

GLANTZ: Nothing. Not a penny.

PERL: All of that money that he received, that hundred, what ever it was, 140,000, and so on, he paid them back in cash?

GLANTZ: That all goes through a (unintelligible). It all went through his company. That's got, that has nothing to do with Eticam or ... or anything. There's no checks back and forth to us or nothing. That's all accountable....

* * *

* * *

PERL: Okay? We were ... and in fact there's a memo at the bank that says we're buying it from Migliacci and Capuanos. And they didn't know how many people were involved. Okay? I guess they know now because they have the information from Pari. And, you know, now they looking at things, and they looking at the deed. The land was bought from Farina. Okay? And we also, we were concerned about it. Why was the land bought from Farina? Not from Migliaccio and Capuanos?

GLANTZ: I told you why. I would never ... repeat it, but I'll tell you, you know, you ... you can go repeat it. I'm not gonna tell you why.

* * *

* * *

GLANTZ: They [the bank] think there's something illegal, let them go tomorrow to the Attorney General in the State of Rhode Island, or let them go to wherever they want to go. This is nothing illegal. The point of the matter is, the illegality ...

PERL: Um humm.

GLANTZ: is of the Migliaccios wanting not to pay all the taxes on the land. Okay? That's one thing. All right? They got an appraisal. Whatever they are supposed to do as a bank, they're supposed to do.

Two months later, Perl sought justice by turning over the tape to the FBI. Soon thereafter, Glantz and Michael and Barbara Farina were subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury. It was at this point, the government argued at trial, that Glantz initiated the conspiracy to obstruct justice by plotting with the Farinas to fabricate a false story they would present to the grand jury regarding the $70,350 payment to Glantz. According to the Farinas, who provided testimony at the trial below in exchange for immunity from prosecution for their role in the conspiracy, they and Glantz met several times prior to going before the grand jury and agreed to explain the payment as consulting fees plus interest for services Glantz provided on a real estate closing several years earlier (the so-called "Joyal" deal). The Farinas testified that the three agreed to deny that the payment was in any way connected with the Knight Street deal, except to assert that the Farinas' profit from that deal allowed them to pay off their past debt to Glantz.

On March 31 and April 28, 1983, Glantz and the Farinas, respectively, testified before a grand jury that the reason for the payment to Glantz was the Joyal deal. Glantz specifically denied that the payment was related to the Knight Street transactions. The government charged that this testimony was perjurious and was an overt act in furtherance of a conspiracy to obstruct justice. These allegations substantially constituted Counts One and Two of Glantz' indictment in the trial below.

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