Case: 18-10569 Date Filed: 08/25/2020 Page: 1 of 25 [PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 18-10569 ________________________ D.C. Docket No. 1:16-cr-00153-KD-N-1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus DAVID JESUS JIMENEZ, Defendant-Appellant. ________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama ________________________ (August 25, 2020) Before WILSON, LAGOA and HULL, Circuit Judges. HULL, Circuit Judge: After a jury trial, defendant David Jimenez appeals his convictions for conspiracy to commit immigration-document fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 Case: 18-10569 Date Filed: 08/25/2020 Page: 2 of 25 and the fourth paragraph of 18 U.S.C. § 1546(a), conspiracy to commit money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h), and money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(A)(i). After careful review, we affirm Jimenez’s three convictions. We conclude that there was sufficient evidence to convict Jimenez of his fraud-conspiracy offense because the I-140 petitions and certain related documents contained false statements and were required by immigration laws or regulations, within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 1546(a). There was also sufficient evidence to support Jimenez’s two money laundering convictions because the immigration-document fraud was an underlying “specified unlawful activity” for purposes of § 1956(a)(1)(A)(i). I. INDICTMENT Jimenez’s convictions arose out of a scheme to obtain fraudulently a particular kind of employment-based visa for “multinational executives and managers,” called an EB-1C visa, from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (“CIS”). Under the scheme, Jimenez recruited and paid U.S. businesses to enter into a fictitious joint venture with a Chinese business. Jimenez then filed an employer I-140 Petition for Immigrant Worker in the U.S. business’s name on behalf of a named Chinese-national beneficiary to classify that beneficiary as an EB-1C multinational executive or manager, even though Jimenez knew that beneficiary would not work for the U.S. business or the joint venture. Once the I- 2 Case: 18-10569 Date Filed: 08/25/2020 Page: 3 of 25 140 petition was granted, that Chinese-national beneficiary obtained an EB-1C work visa and immigrated to the United States but never actually worked for the U.S. business or the fictitious joint venture. The indictment 1 charged Jimenez with one count of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, that is: immigration-document fraud under the fourth paragraph of 18 U.S.C. § 1546(a), in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 (Count 1); several counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1343, 1349 (Counts 2 through 7); one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h) (Count 8); and one count of money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(A)(i) (Count 9). Because ultimately Counts 2 through 7 were dismissed, we focus on only Jimenez’s convictions on Counts 1, 8 and 9. According to the indictment, the false statements in the I-140 petitions and supporting documentation, which Jimenez and his co-conspirators filed with the CIS, were about the Chinese-national beneficiaries’ purported employment ...
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