Danziger v. United States, 10989.
| Decision Date | 08 July 1947 |
| Docket Number | No. 10989.,10989. |
| Parties | DANZIGER et al. v. UNITED STATES. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
A. Brigham Rose, of Los Angeles, Cal., for appellants.
James M. Carter, U. S. Atty., and Ernest A. Tolin, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of Los Angeles, Cal., for appellee.
Before DENMAN, HEALY, and ORR, Circuit Judges.
This is an appeal by J. M. Danziger and two corporations, Trinidad International Petroleum, Ltd., and Wake Development Company, from a conviction under twelve of seventeen counts of an indictment charging violations of the Securities Act of 1933, 15 U.S.C.A. §§ 77q(a) (1) and 77e(a) (2), and of the Criminal Code, 18 U.S.C.A. § 338 (). The final count charged a conspiracy to commit the offenses set out in the first sixteen. Danziger was sentenced to prison for fifteen months on each of the twelve counts, the sentences to run concurrently, and the corporate defendants were sentenced to pay a fine of $200 on each of the twelve counts.
The indictment was returned December 30, 1941, but none of the defendants was arraigned until December 11, 1944, when Danziger and a co-defendant Willard Eugene Warren (indicted as Warren C. Carter) were brought into court and required to plead.1 A motion by Danziger to dismiss the indictment for want of prosecution was denied. Trial was set for the latter part of January 1945.
Summonses against the corporate defendants were not issued until January 24, 1945. They were attempted to be served two days later by a deputy marshal who left copies with a stenographer in Danziger's law office. The summonses ordered the corporations to appear and plead on the morning of the day set for trial. Although no one purported to appear for them, the judge ordered that pleas of not guilty be entered on their behalf and directed Danziger's attorney to act as their counsel despite his protestations of his lack of authority to do so. The attorney further objected to the appointment on the ground that there would be a conflict in interests, to which objection the court replied that the appointment was "subject to developments at the trial that may cause you to feel that your interest has become adverse." A motion for a continuance was denied and the trial proceeded. Written waiver of a jury was filed by Danziger, and the court accepted an oral waiver by the attorney on behalf of the corporations.2
Except for some background matter it is unnecessary to detail the facts of the case. Trinidad International Petroleum is a Nevada corporation of which Danziger was president or chairman of the board. It was organized to take over certain oil rights on the Island of Trinidad. A million shares of its stock were issued, of which half were returned to the treasury. Of the remainder 335,000 shares went to individuals holding the oil rights acquired, and 165,000 were issued to Wake Development Company in consideration of Danziger's promise to render services in the field operations of Trinidad. The Wake Company is a Delaware corporation wholly owned by Danziger's wife except for a period when it was owned by a Mrs. Falkner who was Danziger's secretary and a relative by marriage. Mrs. Falkner was Danziger's chief assistant in running the Wake Company office. At all pertinent times the Wake Company had but one asset, namely, the 165,000 shares of Trinidad stock. The other important figure in the case is Willard Eugene Warren. Warren pleaded guilty to the conspiracy count, and at the trial, on motion of the United States, the remaining counts were dismissed as to him.
Warren was the chief witness for the government. He testified at length to fraudulent transactions in the Trinidad stock owned by the Wake Company, in which transactions he and Danziger were said to have participated. While it is insisted that the evidence was insufficient to convict Danziger, the argument turns out to be little more than an attack on Warren's credibility. If Warren is to be believed there can be no fair doubt of Danziger's guilt on at least some of the counts of which he was convicted; and naturally his credibility was for the trial court to determine. There was, besides, other evidence tending to corroborate Warren. We need not inquire into the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the judgment on all counts of which Danziger was found guilty, it being enough, in view of the concurrent sentences imposed, to hold that he was properly convicted of one.
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