United States v. Haeng Hwa Lee

Appellee Haeng Hwa Lee (“Lee”), a Korean national who originally entered Guam under a tourist visa waiver program, was indicted for Fraud in Connection with an Identification Document, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 1028(a)(1), and Conspiracy, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 371, after obtaining a Guam driver’s license using a fictitious Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (“ITIN”). At Lee’s pretrial conference, the district court dismissed the indictment against Lee, holding that a government agent only produces an identification document “without lawful authority” under § 1028(a)(1) if that agent was “paid off, so that [the agent does] not requir[e] the normal documents or know[s] that the normal documents are forged and ... issue[s] a driver’s license anyway.” The government timely appealed. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we reverse.

“We review de novo a district court’s decision to dismiss an indictment based on an interpretation of a federal statute.” United States v. Marks, 379 F.3d 1114, 1116 (9th Cir.2004).

18 U.S.C. § 2 (b) provides that a person who “willfully causes an act to be done which if directly performed by him or another would…