NIROOMANDI

Appellant Ali Niroomandi was found guilty by the court of unlicensed transmission of money to a foreign country in violation of Financial Code section 1823. On appeal, appellant contends that he cannot be prosecuted for unauthorized transmission of money abroad because the requisite license may only be granted to corporations and, as an individual, he could not have applied for or have obtained such a license. He further contends that only an “appropriate” shareholder, director or officer of a corporation is subject to prosecution for transmitting money overseas without a license and the evidence was insufficient to show he was anything more than an ordinary employee with no real responsibility for the financial transactions at issue here. We affirm.

FACTS

1. Prosecution Evidence

In January 2002, Los Angeles Police Detective Rene Lacasse of the Commercial Crimes Division was part of a multijurisdictional, multiagency task force investigating the flow of money and funding for terrorism. As such, Detective Lacasse was engaged in the investigation of unlicensed money transmittal businesses. In the course of that investigation, Detective Lacasse received information about…