United States v. Aifang Ye

MEMORANDUM

Aifang Ye appeals her convictions for aiding and abetting the provision of false information in a passport application in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1542 and for conspiracy to do the same. She argues that there was insufficient evidence to support her convictions. We review de novo a defendant’s appeal challenging the sufficiency of the evidence. United States v. Bennett, 621 F.3d 1131, 1135 (9th Cir.2010). We hold that there was sufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdicts on both counts.

For the conspiracy conviction, Ye argues that there was insufficient evidence to find that Ye and her brother-in-law Zhenyan Cheng entered into an unlawful agreement because, she contends, there was no evidence that Ye or Zhenyan knew that what they agreed to do was unlawful. Contrary to Ye’s assertions, there was sufficient evidence for the jury to find that Ye and Zhenyan agreed to have Zhenyan make a statement he knew to be untrue when applying with Ye for a passport for Ye’s daughter. Because we hold in our concurrently filed opinion that violating § 1542 does not require specific intent, the jury did not need to find that either Zhenyan or Ye knew that what they were doing…