U.S. v. Pansier

• Decision Date: 12 August 2009
• Docket Number: No. 07-3771.,07-3771.
• Citation: 576 F.3d 726
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Gary L. PANSIER, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

576 F.3d 726

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Gary L. PANSIER, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 07-3771.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued September 9, 2008.

Decided August 12, 2009.

Gail Joy Hoffman (argued), Office of the United States Attorney, Milwaukee, WI, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Nishay K. Sanan (argued), Chicago, IL, for Defendant-Appellant.

Before FLAUM, WILLIAMS, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge.

Gary Pansier, a tax protester, did not pay his taxes for many years. When federal, state, and local revenue agents attempted to collect his delinquent taxes, Pansier responded by requesting personal information from the individual agents and filing false forms with the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS"), claiming that the individual revenue agents had been involved in large cash transactions on his behalf. He also attempted to satisfy his various tax debts with phony sight drafts, a type of financial instrument, which appeared to be drawn on a Treasury Direct account and issued under the authority of United States Department of Treasury. For his behavior, Pansier was convicted of obstructing the administration of the IRS, filing false IRS forms, and passing phony financial instruments with the intent to defraud.

On appeal, Pansier raises a number of challenges to his convictions, but we are not persuaded by any of them. Because we conclude that the district court was permitted to exclude at least thirty days to resolve multiple pretrial motions, the delays in Pansier's trial did not violate the Speedy Trial Act. The language of Count One of the indictment reveals that the count was not duplicitous and charged Pansier only with obstructing the due administration of the IRS under the omnibus clause of 26 U.S.C. § 7212(a). We further conclude that it is not an element of 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1), a perjury statute, that the false document passed was required to be filed by statute or regulation. Therefore, Counts Two through Nine of the indictment alleged all the necessary elements of the offense. And finally, the district court properly considered both the qualifications and the reliability of the government's expert witness and did not err in the admission of his testimony. We therefore affirm the judgment of the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

Pansier and his wife refused to pay income and property taxes for many years. As a result, the IRS, the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, and the Treasurer's Office of Marinette County each sent the Pansiers notice of their tax delinquencies. Pansier responded to these notices by returning them to the relevant taxing authority stamped with the words "accepted for value and exempt from levy." He also attached an IRS W-9 form, requesting personal information, including social security numbers and dates of birth, from the individual employees and state officials attempting collections. In each instance, when he received no response from the individual employee, Pansier filed a "Form 8300," an IRS form used to report cash payments over $10,000 received in one transaction or two or more related transactions, see 26 U.S.C. § 6050I. On each form, he falsely reported that the individual employee had made a cash payment on his behalf and had refused to provide a social security number or date of birth. Pansier also checked the "amends prior report" box as well as the "suspicious transaction" box, which is used to note that the individual is withholding information or attempting to prevent the form from being filed. See IRS Form 8300, http://www.irs. gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8300.pdf.

Among those individuals named by Pansier in the false Form 8300's were two employees of the Wisconsin Department of Revenue; the Treasurer of Marinette County, Wisconsin; the Secretary of Revenue for the State of Wisconsin; Judge William M. Atkinson of the Brown County, Wisconsin Circuit Court; and an IRS revenue officer assigned to Pansier's case. After receiving the false forms, the IRS entered each one into its database and sent notices to the individuals, requesting that they provide the missing information and informing them of potential penalties if they failed to respond. Once the IRS investigated further, it discovered that the forms were false and removed all the entries from its database.

Next, in an attempt to dodge his tax bills, Pansier submitted as payment for taxes he owed to the IRS, the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, and Marinette County, phony financial instruments, which appeared to be sight drafts issued under the authority of the United States Department of Treasury. Sight drafts are financial instruments that are payable at the bearer's demand or on presentment to the drawer. Black's Law Dictionary 530 (8th ed.2004). The sight drafts included a purported Treasury Direct routing number, listed Pansier's social security number as the Treasury Direct account number, and directed the recipient to seek payment from Pansier's Treasury Direct account. But Pansier did not have a Treasury Direct account, which is only an investment account that is administered by the United States Treasury Department's Bureau of Public Debt and cannot be used to pay third parties. See Treasury Direct, htt p:// www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/myaccount/ myaccount.htm# TreasuryDirect. When the IRS received these phony sight drafts, it initially credited Pansier's account and attempted to present them for payment at several banks where they were dishonored.

In November 2005, a grand jury returned a 31-count indictment against Pansier, charging him with one count of obstructing the due administration of the IRS, see 26 U.S.C. § 7212(a); eight counts of filing under penalty of perjury false IRS Form 8300's, see 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); and twenty-two counts of fraudulently passing fictitious financial instruments, appearing to be issued under the authority of the United States, see 18 U.S.C. § 514(a)(2). Pansier made his initial appearance at an arraignment on January 27, 2006. Because Pansier argues that his trial was impermissibly delayed in violation of the Speedy Trial Act, we provide a detailed description of the procedural history of the case and the relevant dates following his initial appearance.

Pansier initially opted to proceed pro se and filed numerous pretrial motions, some of which were incomprehensible or irrelevant, while others, including multiple motions to dismiss the indictment, discovery motions, and a motion for a bill of particulars, arguably presented substantive issues. The government filed a motion for handwriting exemplars and one motion in limine. Judge William Griesbach ruled on many of these motions and denied Pansier's various motions to dismiss.

At the final pretrial conference, Judge Griesbach disclosed that one of the government's witnesses, Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge William Atkinson, is his former colleague and a friend. Nevertheless, at that time, Judge Griesbach concluded that he could remain impartial, and neither party objected. Pansier waived his right to a jury, and the case proceeded to trial.

In August 2006, Judge Griesbach found Pansier guilty of Counts One through Nine but reserved his ruling on the remaining counts pending the parties' post-trial briefs. Several weeks later, however, Judge Griesbach issued an order in which he again informed the parties of his relationship with Judge Atkinson, and this time he invited them to move for his disqualification based on the possibility of an appearance of impropriety. Pansier accepted this invitation, and, consequently, in an order dated October 10, 2006, Judge Griesbach recused himself and vacated all his previous orders and findings in the case.

The case was reassigned to Judge Charles N. Clevert, Jr. Neither party filed anything until two months later when, on December 13, 2006, Pansier sought a clarification and modification of his conditions of release. On December 26, the government moved to revoke Pansier's bond. The district court set a hearing date for the motion. In the meantime, Pansier moved to dismiss the charges based on an alleged violation of the Speedy Trial Act. On January 26, 2007, the court revoked Pansier's bond and denied his Speedy Trial Act motion, finding that the numerous pretrial motions that had been filed before Judge Griesbach's recusal had been revived and were still pending. As a result, the court determined that the speedy trial clock was tolled. On February 9 Pansier filed the first in another series of pro se motions, and on February 22, the district court ruled on nine motions that had been filed before Judge Griesbach's recusal, as well as three motions that had been filed after the recusal, and ordered briefing on four outstanding motions, two of which had been filed before Judge Griesbach.

In March 2007, Pansier retained an attorney and, through counsel, filed four motions: (1) a motion to dismiss Count One of the indictment as duplicitous; (2) a motion to dismiss Counts Two through Nine of the indictment for failure to allege all the necessary elements of the crime; (3) a motion to dismiss the indictment based on preindictment delay; and (4) a renewed motion to dismiss for violation of the Speedy Trial Act. The court denied each of these motions.

The case again proceeded to trial, this time before a jury. The government argued that Pansier had obstructed the due administration of the IRS by submitting the false Form 8300's, knowing that by checking the "amends prior report" and "suspicious transaction" boxes, the IRS would be sent on a wild goose chase, investigating the fictional transactions and, after discovering that no transactions had occurred, would be required to remove the false information in the IRS database. He further obstructed the administration of the IRS, the government argued, by submitting the fictitious sight drafts as payment for his federal taxes, knowing that, even if the drafts were not accepted as...