United States v. JoseUnited States v. Jose
This case presents our first occasion to address the bulk cash smuggling provisions of the 2001 USA PATRIOT Act, Pub.L. No. 107-56, § 371, 115 Stat. 272, 336-38 (codified as amended at
I.
On August 23, 2004, Jose checked two pieces of luggage on a flight departing from Luis Muoz Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico. Jose was on his way to St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles. Customs officers inspected Jose’s checked luggage and discovered bundles of cash wrapped in tissue paper hidden in a pair of sneakers and other bundles wrapped in carbon paper hidden inside a set of bed sheets. The officers approached Jose and explained to him the currency reporting requirements for transported amounts in excess of $10,000.
See
Jose was arrested on August 23 and later charged in an indictment with (1) knowingly and willfully failing to file a report when he was about to transport at one time monetary instruments of more than $10,000 from a place in the United States to a place outside the United States, in violation of
On November 4, 2004, Jose entered a straight guilty plea to all three counts of the indictment. The district court advised defendant of his rights and found that he had knowingly and voluntarily waived them by pleading guilty. The court also explained to Jose that by pleading guilty he could expect the government to proceed to forfeit the money involved in the offense as a result of the violations of the cash reporting requirement and the bulk cash smuggling statute. Jose agreed except for the $1,400 he did declare, which he expected to be allowed to keep. The government clarified that it had already filed administrative proceedings to try to return the $1,400 to defendant. The government sought forfeiture of the remaining funds, which Jose had attempted to smuggle, but nothing more than that.
On December 13, 2004, the government requested a preliminary order of forfeiture for the entire amount of $114,948. The government’s motion cited both
At the hearing on December 14, 2004, the district court stated that it was not so naive as to believe defendant’s story about how he came to possess the $114,948. The judge found that Jose had attempted to mislead the court, and he sentenced Jose to 18 months’ imprisonment on each count, to be served concurrently. Jose also received three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay a special monetary assessment of $100 on each count. In light of defendant’s financial situation, the court did not impose a fine. Judgment entered on December 14, 2004; no forfeiture order was included in the judgment, as provided for under
On December 20, 2004, the government filed a motion to amend the judgment, calling the district court’s attention to the fact that the judgment did not include a forfeiture order and to the outstanding issue concerning the $1,400 that Jose had declared. On December 23, 2004, the district court adopted the government’s earlier proposed order (with its typographical error) and issued a preliminary order of forfeiture as to the entire amount of $114,948. The court did not amend its earlier judgment to include the forfeiture order.
In December 2005, defendant’s appellate counsel filed a brief pursuant to
Anders v. California,
II.
The Eighth Amendment provides: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
Jose’s argument relies heavily on the Supreme Court’s decision in
United States v. Bajakajian,
Congress responded to
Bajakajian
in the USA PATRIOT Act when it amended laws governing civil and criminal forfeiture in the wake of September 11, 2001. Pub.L. No. 107-56, §§ 319, 371, 372,
The Act also defined the new crime of “bulk cash smuggling” at
Whoever, with the intent to evade a currency reporting requirement undersection 5316 , knowingly conceals more than $10,000 in currency or other monetary instruments on the person of such individual or in any conveyance, article of luggage, merchandise, or other container, and transports or transfers or attempts to transport or transfer such currency or monetary instruments from a place within the United States to a place outside of the United States, or from a place outside the United States to a place within the United States, shall be guilty of a currency smuggling offense and subject to punishment pursuant to subsection (b).
Although the elements of the offense defined at
[t]he current penalties for violations of the currency reporting requirements are insufficient to provide a deterrent to the laundering of criminal proceeds. In particular, in cases where the only criminal violation under current law is a reporting offense, the law does not adequately provide for the confiscation of smuggled currency. In contrast, if the smuggling of bulk cash were itself an offense, the cash could be confiscated as the corpus delicti of the smuggling offense.
USA PATRIOT Act, Pub.L. No. 107-56, § 371(a)(6),
Congress was explicit that its purposes in enacting
Congress, in enacting
The Committee believes ... that bulk cash smuggling is an inherently more serious offense than simply failing to file a Customs report. Because the constitutionality of a forfeiture is dependent on the “gravity of the offense” under Bajakajian, it is anticipated that the full forfeiture of smuggled money will withstand constitutional scrutiny in most cases.
H.R.Rep. No. 107-250(1), at 53 (2001).
We turn to the question of whether the district court’s forfeiture order was plainly erroneous, given defendant’s challenge under the Excessive Fines Clause. In considering this question, we need not, and do not, address whether Congress, in enacting
We consider first whether the forfeiture order constituted punishment.
See Heldeman,
Next, we consider whether the forfeiture of the $114,948 would be “grossly disproportional to the gravity of the defendant’s offense.”
Id.
at 337,
On the first factor, we inquire whether the statute is principally directed toward defendant. Given that we take the forfeiture order to be independently based on Count Three, we consider whether
Turning to the second factor, Jose, like Bajakajian, faced a statutory maximum of 5 years’ imprisonment.
See
The third factor requires us to evaluate the harm caused by defendant. We consider the harm caused by Jose’s violation of
Thus far we have concluded: (1) defendant’s funds may well have been linked to other criminal activities, (2) the amount of forfeiture is not grossly out of line with the maximum fine authorized by the Sentencing Guidelines, and (3) Congress has clearly expressed its belief that bulk cash smuggling is a serious offense linked to various kinds of harm. The consideration of a fourth factor makes abundantly clear that there was no error here. 8
The Supreme Court noted in
Bajakajian
that the Excessive Fines Clause was taken from the English Bill of Rights of 1689.
It cannot reasonably be argued that forfeiture of the $114,948 would deprive defendant of his livelihood. As the district court noted at sentencing, “according to [Jose’s] own words, th[e] money wasn’t his to start with.... So whether the government forfeits it or not, it is really of no consequence to him because it wasn’t his to be forfeited.” The money, by defendant’s own admission, was not related to efforts to maintain his livelihood. Further, at the change of plea hearing, the government indicated that Jose’s business merchandise, which was taken from him in Puerto Rico, was in the process of being sent to his wife in St. Maarten so that she could resell the goods there, in accordance with Jose’s business practice. We conclude that the forfeiture order does not implicate the historical concerns underlying the Excessive Fines Clause.
For the foregoing reasons, we hold that defendant has failed to show that there was error, much less error that was plain. The amount of forfeiture simply is not “grossly disproportional to the gravity of the defendant’s offense.”
Id.
at 337,
The government has requested a limited remand so that it can pursue its intention, stated at the change of plea hearing, to return to defendant the $1,400 he declared. The government plans to move to amend the district court’s order to reflect the
Notes
. Jose argues that his objection at the sentencing hearing to the forfeiture of the declared $1,400 suffices to merit de novo review on appeal. This argument fails, as defendant never objected to the forfeiture on Eighth Amendment grounds before the district court.
. At the time,
. For a discussion of the USA PATRIOT Act's civil forfeiture provisions for interbank accounts, see
United States v. Union Bank for Savings & Investment,
.
. Section 5316 provides in relevant part:
(a) Except as provided in subsection (c) of this section, a person or an agent or bailee of the person shall file a report under subsection (b) of this section when the person, agent, or bailee knowingly—
(1) transports, is about to transport, or has transported, monetary instruments of more than $10,000 at one time—
(A) from a place in the United States to or through a place outside the United States; or
(B) to a place in the United States from or through a place outside the United States....
. The government has not argued on appeal that the forfeiture is merely a remedial customs remedy that does not constitute punishment subject to the Excessive Fines Clause.
See One Lot Emerald Cut Stones v. United States,
. After the district court announced Jose’s sentence, defense counsel characterized the court as having found that .the funds were “related to a drug offense.” The judge responded:
I didn't say that at any moment.... I said that [Jose’s] story ... as to how he came about the money is hard to believe. And I am not so naive as to think that somebody would throw away $114,948 in a trash can. That is all I said. I didn’t use anything about drugs, Counselor.
. Even if we were measuring forfeiture by section 5316, the cash reporting requirement, we would still find no violation of the Excessive Fines Clause.