United States v. Brown
| Decision Date | 29 July 1957 |
| Docket Number | No. 349,Docket 24386.,349 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. v. Wilson W. BROWN, Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Paul W. Williams, U. S. Atty., New York City, for appellee (Robert Kirtland, Asst. U. S. Atty., New York City, of counsel).
Laurence Rosenthal, New York City, for appellant.
Before CLARK, Chief Judge, and CHASE and HINCKS, Circuit Judges.
The appellant was tried by jury in the District Court for the Southern District of New York on an indictment in four counts, each of which charged the violation of Section 2314 of Title 18 U.S.C., by causing, with intent to defraud, the transportation of falsely made securities in foreign and interstate commerce from Mexico City, Mexico, to Central Hanover Bank & Trust Company in the City of New York which the appellant knew had been falsely made. Each count set out as the securities so transported a separate draft with supporting documents drawn by the appellant on the Hanover Bank, under a letter of credit, to obtain partial payment for what was represented to have been a quantity of Mexican manganese ore shipped aboard a railroad car, or cars, pursuant to the terms of a contract. This appeal is from his conviction and sentence on three of the counts.
He relies principally upon the contention that the undisputed evidence of the government was insufficient to prove him guilty of the crime charged and as, we agree, we will not reach other grounds which have been urged for reversal.
It was shown at the trial that the appellant sold four thousand tons of Mexican manganese ore to the Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation, doing business in the City of New York, for which he was to be paid the agreed price on his sight drafts drawn under a letter of credit the buyer caused the Hanover bank to open in the appellant's favor through the Banco Nacional de Mexico at Mexico City. Under this letter of credit, as amended, the appellant could draw sight drafts on the buyer which were to be paid to him at the Mexican bank when accompanied by (1) the original bill of lading plus a non-negotiable copy of it covering shipment, on United States railroad cars, of manganese ore from Mexico to the buyer's designee in Brownsville, Texas; (2) the original invoice by the appellant to the buyer in New York; (3) a certificate of insurance on the shipment; and (4) an assayer's certificate showing the manganese content of the ore.
In each of the instances covered by the counts on which he was convicted the appellant drew a sight draft which was paid by the Mexican bank when it was presented. In each instance the draft was accompanied by bills of lading and assayer's certificates which were forged and by insurance certificates purporting to cover shipments of ore which was not in fact shipped, though they were genuine certificates issued by an insurance company. After the drafts were paid by the Mexican bank they were sent with the accompanying documents to the Hanover Bank in New York. It is the group of documents in each instance, which the government called a "package," which are the "securities" which the appellant was convicted of having caused to be transported in interstate commerce in violation of the above statute.
The now applicable part of the statute makes unlawful the transportation in interstate or foreign commerce of "any falsely made, forged, altered, or counterfeited securities, knowing the same to have been falsely made, forged, altered, or counterfeited, * * *." The phrase "falsely made" as used in the statute relates to the execution of what is defined in Section 2311 of the same title to be a security rather than to whether its content be true or false. Marteney v. United States, 10 Cir., 216 F.2d 760; Wright v. United States, 9 Cir., 172 F.2d 310. As was said in Pines v. United States, 8 Cir., 123 F.2d 825, 828, "To `falsely make' is a crime not of changing or forming an instrument to resemble an existing genuine instrument or to represent that it is the act of a genuine and existing obligor, but rather to make an instrument which has no original as such and no genuine maker whose work is copied, although in form it may resemble a type of recognized security." Manifestly, none of the drafts, taken by themselves, were...
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