United States v. Leslie Higuchi

Appellant was indicted, tried by a jury and convicted on two counts of violations of 18 U.S.C. § 2314 for knowingly and fraudulently transporting forged checks in interstate commerce.

Factual Summary

Most of the facts are admitted. The following is a fair summary of what occurred. On January 20, 1969, the appellant, using the alias George Zane, opened a savings account of $1,000.00 in a Honolulu bank. The following day, he returned to the bank and deposited to that account three cheeks totaling $38,- 000.00. A $7,000.00 check was drawn on another local bank, while the other two checks, in amounts of $11,000.00 and $20,000.00, were drawn on the Bank of America in La Mirada, California on the account of one Robert W. Wolfe. Both of these checks were made payable to George Zane, and were endorsed by appellant under that name.

The next day, appellant again returned to the bank; and attempted to transfer the money from his savings account to a checking account. The bank refused to make the transfer.

On January 24th, appellant attempted to withdraw the original $1,000.00 used to open the savings account. The bank employees, having become suspicious, asked him to wait, during which…