United States v. Carlos Linares, 691 F. App'x 196

Carlos L. Linares, owner/operator of a money services business, was convicted by a jury of: aiding and abetting theft of government funds (18 U.S.C. §§ 641, 2), failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering (AML) program (31 U.S.C. §§ 5318(h), 5322), and obstruction of federal agency proceedings (18 U.S.C. § 1505) arising from IRS compliance exams.
From March 2012–May 2013, Linares cashed over 270 fraudulent/stolen U.S. Treasury checks, causing losses exceeding $1.6 million; many checks bore obvious defects (e.g., payee listed as “%NA”) and numerous transactions lacked ID verification or used fraudulent IDs.
IRS examiners informed Linares in 2010 that his business was subject to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA); he received written guidance and certified awareness of BSA obligations in 2009 and 2012, but remained noncompliant through at least early 2014.
During the 2010 and 2013 IRS compliance exams Linares refused to produce requested checks and IDs, and made affirmative false statements about his check-cashing practices (limits on amounts and frequency; customer profiles); later searches recovered many of the requested documents.
On appeal Linares challenged the sufficiency of the evidence; he did not renew his Rule 29 (judgment of acquittal) motion at the close of all evidence, so review was limited to whether his convictions resulted in a manifest miscarriage of justice.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of evidence for §641 (theft/knowing conversion)	Government: evidence showed Linares knowingly cashed obviously fraudulent/stolen Treasury checks and deliberately ignored verification	Linares: lacked requisite knowledge/fraudulent intent	Affirmed — jury could find knowledge; instruction on deliberate ignorance supported conviction
Violation of BSA / failure to maintain AML program (§§5318,5322)	Government: Linares operated an MSB, was informed of BSA duties, received guidance, certified awareness, and willfully failed to implement required AML controls	Linares: disputed willfulness/compliance claims	Affirmed — sufficient evidence of awareness and deliberate noncompliance
Obstruction of IRS exams (18 U.S.C. §1505) — 2010 and 2013 exams	Government: Linares knowingly lied and withheld requested checks/IDs, impeding IRS proceedings	Linares: alleged language/comprehension barrier and contested intent	Affirmed — examiners testified communication was adequate; evidence showed intentional false statements and refusal to produce documents
Standard of appellate review / waiver of Rule 29 motion	Government: appellant waived full sufficiency review by not renewing Rule 29; review limited to manifest miscarriage of justice per Delgado	Linares: challenges sufficiency on appeal despite not renewing motion	Affirmed — review limited and no manifest miscarriage of justice shown

Delgado, 256 F.3d 264 (5th Cir. 2001) (appellate review limited to manifest miscarriage of justice where Rule 29 motion not renewed)