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United States v. Duran

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[PUBLISH]

Before WILSON and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges, and RESTANI,*fn1 Judge.

Franklin Duran (“Duran”), a Venezuelan citizen, was convicted of conspiring with one of his business partners and three other co-conspirators to knowingly act in the United States as an agent of a foreign government, without prior notification to the Attorney General of the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371, and of acting in the United States as an agent of a foreign government, without prior notification to the Attorney General, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 951, as a result of his involvement in attempting to cover up the so-called “Suitcase Scandal” between Venezuela and Argentina. Duran’s business partner and the two other co-conspirators pled guilty to the same charges and testified against Duran at his trial. Duran now raises five issues on appeal: (1) that § 951 is unconstitutionally vague as applied to the facts of this case; (2) that Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b) character evidence was admitted for an improper purpose; (3) that the Government engaged in prosecutorial misconduct by improperly commenting on the Rule 404(b) evidence; (4) that evidence of Duran and his co-conspirators’ lack of knowledge of the notification requirement under § 951 was erroneously excluded; and (5) that the district court should have admitted several hearsay statements evidencing Duran’s lack of intent to act as an agent of a foreign government under § 951. Upon considering the briefs, the record, and after the benefit of oral argument, we affirm Duran’s convictions under 18 U.S.C. §§ 371 and 951.

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