United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit No. 17-2092 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee, v. ANTONIO M. FREITAS, Defendant, Appellant. APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS [Hon. William G. Young, U.S. District Judge] Before Torruella, Thompson, and Barron, Circuit Judges. Phillip N. Beauregard, with whom Law Offices of Beauregard, Burke & Franco was on brief, for appellant. Mark T. Quinlivan, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Andrew E. Lelling, United States Attorney, was on brief, for appellee. September 6, 2018 THOMPSON, Circuit Judge. PREFACE Antonio Freitas stands convicted of bulk-cash smuggling and currency structuring, in violation of 31 U.S.C. §§ 5332(a) and 5324(c).1 Freitas believes we must vacate his convictions because, according to him, the district judge quadruply erred — first by admitting certain statements under the coconspirator exception to 1 Subpart (a)(1) of section 5332(a), the bulk-cash-smuggling statute, punishes anyone who, with the intent to evade a currency reporting requirement under section 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 . . . . The cross-referenced provision, 31 U.S.C. § 5316, generally requires that "a person or an agent or bailee of the person . . . file a report . . . when [he] knowingly . . . transports, is about to transport, or has transported, monetary instruments" over "$10,000 at one time . . . from a place in the United States to or through a place outside the United States" (the statute's description of the required report is irrelevant for our purposes). And subpart (a)(2) of the bulk-cash-smuggling statute makes clear that "concealment of currency on the person of any individual includes concealment in any article of clothing worn by the individual or in any luggage, backpack, or other container worn or carried by such individual." Section 5324(c), the currency-structuring statute, prohibits a person from "structur[ing] . . . any importation or exportation of monetary instruments" for the purpose of "evading" section 5316's reporting requirements. Section 5324(c) covers those who "structure or assist in structuring, or attempt to structure or assist in structuring." - 2 - the hearsay rule; next by instructing the jury that the government can prove the concealment element of the bulk-cash-smuggling charge through evidence of structuring, an instruction that wrongly removed the mental-state element from both crimes; then by not granting his motion for acquittal on the structuring count; and finally by not adequately responding to the government's prejudicial comments in closing argument and at sentencing. Disagreeing, we affirm. HOW THE CASE GOT HERE Presented in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict, see United States v. Rodríguez–Soler, 773 F.3d 289, 290 (1st Cir. 2014), the underlying facts are easily summarized. Smelling ...
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