FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 19-10405 Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No. v. 1:17-cr-00550- SOM-1 DUANE NISHIIE, AKA Suh Jae Hon, Defendant-Appellee. OPINION Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii Susan O. Mollway, District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted January 15, 2021 San Francisco, California Filed May 12, 2021 Before: Mary M. Schroeder, Jay S. Bybee, and Ryan D. Nelson, Circuit Judges. Opinion by Judge R. Nelson; Concurrence by Judge Schroeder 2 UNITED STATES V. NISHIIE SUMMARY * Criminal Law The panel reversed the district court’s order dismissing as time barred seven non-conspiracy criminal counts, and remanded for further proceedings, in a case in which the indictment alleges that Duane Nishiie engaged in a scheme seeking payments in exchange for steering the award of Department of Defense contracts for infrastructure, engineering, and construction projects in Korea. The seven non-conspiracy counts, which were based on alleged activity that occurred prior to September 21, 2012, would be time barred absent a suspension—pursuant to Wartime Suspension of Limitations Act (WSLA), 18 U.S.C. § 3287—of the running of the five-year statute of limitations set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3282(a). The appeal raised a question of first impression: which of the three categories of offenses under the WSLA—fraud, property, or contract—is modified by a clause requiring a nexus between the charged criminal conduct and a specific, ongoing war or congressional authorization of military force. After considering the WSLA’s plain language and structure, well-established canons of statutory construction, and the WSLA’s amendment history and context, the panel concluded that the WSLA's restrictive-relative clause does not modify the first offense category “involving fraud or attempted fraud” or the second offense category involving * This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader. UNITED STATES V. NISHIIE 3 “any real or personal property of the United States.” The panel held that the running of any statute of limitations applicable to the WSLA’s fraud and property offense categories—offense categories under which Nishiie was charged—is therefore suspended, whether or not a nexus exists between these offenses and either war or “authorized use of the Armed Forces.” Concurring, Judge Schroeder agreed that the district court’s judgment must be reversed, but disagreed with the majority that any canon of statutory construction aids this court’s decision. What persuaded Judge Schroeder that the suspension restriction applies only to crimes related to contracts (and not to fraud and property crimes) is that the contract category and the restrictive clause were enacted together in July 1944 and have stayed together despite subsequent amendments reordering the list of crimes within the WSLA. COUNSEL Francesco Valentini (argued), Trial Attorney, Appellate Section; Robert A. Zink, Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General; Brian C. Rabbit, Acting Assistant Attorney General; Richard B. Evans, Peter M. Nothstein, and Erica O’Brien Waymack, Trial Attorneys, Public Integrity Section; Criminal Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington, …
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