US v. Vogt
| Decision Date | 24 December 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. Cr-86-199-01-G.,Cr-86-199-01-G. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of North Carolina |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America v. David Jack VOGT, Jr. |
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Harry M. Solomon, Miami, Fla., Donald T. Bogan, Greensboro, N.C., Joel Hirschhorn, Miami, Fla., for defendant.
Defendant David Jack Vogt, Jr., was charged in the first three counts of a four-count superseding indictment handed down on January 5, 1987, which also named Burton Robert Levey and William Carl Ray as defendants. Count One alleged that Vogt violated 18 U.S.C. § 1962(a) by knowingly and willfully investing or using income or proceeds derived directly or indirectly from a pattern of racketeering activity in an enterprise engaged in or affecting interstate commerce. The predicate racketeering activity alleged was multiple violations of 18 U.S.C. § 201(c)(3), to wit, knowingly, intentionally and corruptly receiving and agreeing to receive things of value in return for doing or omitting to do acts in violation of his official duty as an officer of the United States Customs Service. Count Two alleged that Vogt conspired with Levey and Ray to violate 18 U.S.C. § 1962(a). Count Three alleged that Vogt conspired with Levey, Ray, and others to violate 18 U.S.C. § 371 by "impeding, impairing, obstructing and defeating the lawful functions" of the Internal Revenue Service in ascertaining, computing, assessing and collecting federal income taxes.
The indictment also alleged that by virtue of violating Section 1962 Vogt and Ray were subject to the criminal forfeiture provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 1963(a)(1), (2), and (3), and described several items allegedly forfeitable.
The evidence presented by the government in the case, consistent with its theory of prosecution, established that Defendant Vogt, after accepting bribe money from drug smugglers in exchange for confidential customs service information, concealed this money through the use of off-shore accounts, domestic and off-shore corporations, and the utilization of the law firm trust accounts of his Florida and North Carolina attorneys, co-defendants Levey and Ray, and invested the money in acquiring assets in Florida, North Carolina, and elsewhere. After a trial which continued for almost three months, the jury returned a verdict on June 18, 1987, finding Vogt guilty of Counts One and Three. The jury acquitted Vogt on Count Two and acquitted Levey and Ray on all applicable counts.
Having been convicted of violating Section 1962 Vogt is subject to the criminal forfeiture provisions of Section 1963(a). Vogt knowingly and voluntarily agreed to a bench trial on the forfeiture issue, thereby waiving his right to a jury determination under Rule 31(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Vogt has been awaiting sentence pending the court's determinations as to forfeiture.
Defendant requested that the court make specific findings of fact on the forfeiture issue. Based on the evidence produced at trial the court deems the findings of fact set out below to have been established by proof beyond a reasonable doubt. In any trial of this length, however, involving ninety witnesses and approximately 500 exhibits, it is not possible to enumerate every shred of evidence supporting each finding; the court, in making references to specific evidence supporting the findings below, does not suggest that the evidence enumerated is exclusive, and that there are not additional facts and circumstances leading to the same finding or conclusion.
1. From 1971 to early 1979 Defendant David Jack Vogt, Jr., was employed by the United States Department of the Treasury as a customs official for the United States Customs Service in the south Florida area.
2. Defendant first met Philip Frederick Keidaish in May 1974 when Defendant arrested Keidaish on a sojourn violation for illegally taking an ex-military aircraft out of the country.
3. Beginning sometime after the sojourn arrest in 1974 Keidaish and Vogt became friends, during a time when Keidaish was involved in an extensive smuggling operation involving numerous flights bringing multiple ton loads of marijuana into the United States from South America.
4. Beginning sometime after the sojourn arrest in 1974 and continuing until late 1978 Keidaish made cash payments to Vogt in United States currency approximately seven times, averaging in excess of $100,000.00, in exchange for information from Vogt pertaining to Customs Service surveillance and "watch lists" of suspected drug smugglers.
5. Keidaish and his associates, including Theodore DeLisi, his partner in several smuggling flights, used the information Defendant provided in making their arrangements to import marijuana from South America by plane, and at least twice relied on Defendant's information in changing plans.
6. Keidaish testified credibly about the smuggling operation, his leadership role in it, and his bribery of Vogt. The court credits Keidaish's testimony, and when considered along with that of Theodore DeLisi, James Wilson, Harry Hill, James DeVon, and others, finds that it establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that Vogt received substantial cash bribes from the Keidaish smuggling organization in exchange for supplying confidential information to Keidaish.
1. Burton R. Levey was and is an attorney in Miami, Florida, and during the 1970's and early 1980's was a partner with Leonard Levenstein and others in the four-to-six-person law firm of Levey, Levenstein, Cowan & Rubenstein. Levey represented Philip Keidaish in a variety of legal matters during the 1970's, and incorporated several off-shore corporations in the islands for Keidaish. Levey represented Keidaish in purchases of assets through off-shore corporations including land in Polk County, Florida, purchased in the name of a Netherlands Antilles corporation, Worthington, N.V. Keidaish also owned airplanes which he held in corporate names. Keidaish did not hold assets in his own name because he did not want to report assets in excess of his income to the Internal Revenue Service, and thus presented himself as an "agent" of certain corporations rather than as the owner. Keidaish laundered money through offshore bank accounts and the Levey law firm trust account in an attempt to hide assets derived from illicit income.
2. Leonard Levenstein did a substantial amount of corporate work through offshore corporations and banks for Theodore DeLisi, Keidaish's partner in some of his smuggling operations. Levenstein personally took illegal money, accompanied by Levey on at least one occasion, to the Bank of Nova Scotia in Freeport, Bahamas, for Theodore DeLisi. The law firm often wire transferred funds from the Bank of Nova Scotia back into the firm trust account. Substantial illegal income passed through the Bank of Nova Scotia and into the Levey, Levenstein firm trust accounts.
3. The Levey, Levenstein, Cowan, Rubenstein firm trust account was with Pan American Bank of Miami during at least the second half of 1979 until at least through March 1980. By May of 1980 and continuing through at least August 1981 the firm trust account was with First City Bank of Dade County, Florida.
4. Keidaish introduced Vogt to Levey in March 1979 with respect to a problem Defendant had with title to an airplane. Beginning on March 21, 1979, and continuing at least through April 23, 1980, Levey performed a variety of legal work for the Defendant. While there is no evidence that Levey directly established off-shore corporations and accounts for Vogt, Levey assisted Vogt in transactions involving such off-shore corporations and accounts.
5. Darryl Myers is an attorney in Grand Cayman, British West Indies, and the evidence presented at trial established beyond a reasonable doubt that Darryl Myers was an unindicted co-conspirator in many of the money-laundering activities alleged in the indictment. The trust account for Myers' law firm, McDonald, Myers & Co., was with the Bank of Nova Scotia in the Cayman Islands. Keidaish and Vogt were acquainted with Myers.
6. Vogt spoke on numerous occasions about off-shore corporations, about doing consulting work for off-shore corporations, and about putting money into off-shore corporations and bringing it back into the country later. In January 1981 Vogt, Keidaish, Ray Pringle, Jr., and James E. Hodges went to the Cayman Islands, where they went to the Bank of Nova Scotia and Keidaish and Vogt met with officers of the bank from 30 to 45 minutes. Keidaish and Vogt also met with Myers in the Caymans on at least one other occasion. Defendant was also in the Caymans from July 14-July 17, 1977, on vacation from his position with the Customs Service.
7. From January 31, 1980, through December 19, 1980, Mary Anne Vogt, wife of Defendant, received cashier's checks from the Bank of Nova Scotia, Georgetown, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, B.W.I., on a monthly basis, all in the amount of $3,000.00, and deposited each in the joint personal bank account held by her and Defendant.
8. Guiness Mahon Bank is a Cayman Island bank. Mary Anne Vogt received checks dated November 26, 1981, and November 27, 1981, drawn on the Guiness Mahon Cayman Trust Limited account through Irving Trust in New York for $4,000.00 each, which she deposited on separate days in the Vogt joint personal account.
9. Defendant received two checks from the Guiness Mahon Cayman Trust Limited account through Irving Trust dated July 23, 1981, both in the amount of $4,000.00, and three checks from the same account dated February 2, 1982, all for $4,000.00, all of which he deposited separately in the joint personal account.
10. Defendant received a check from the Guiness Mahon Cayman Trust Limited account through Irving Trust dated ...
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