United States v. Bassam Salman

Defendant-Appellant Bassam Yacoub Salman appeals his conviction, following jury trial, for conspiracy and insider trading. He argues that the evidence was insufficient to sustain his conviction under the standard announced by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in United States v. Newman, 773 F.3d 438 (2d Cir.2014), which he urges us to adopt. We find that the evidence was sufficient, and we affirm.

BACKGROUND

This case arises from an insider-trading scheme involving members of Salman’s extended family. On September 1, 2011, Sal-man was indicted for one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and four counts of securities fraud in violation of 15 U.S.C. §§ 78j(b) and 78ff, 17 C.F.R. §§ 240 .10b-5, 240.10b5-l and 240.10b5-2, and 18 U.S.C. § 2 . At trial, the Government presented evidence of the following:

In 2002, Salman’s future brother-in-law Maher Kara joined Oitigroup’s healthcare investment banking group. Over the next few years, Maher began to discuss aspects of his job with his older brother, Mounir (“Michael”) Kara. At first, Maher sought help from Michael, who held an undergraduate degree in…