Tulaner

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,  No. 06-10304 Plaintiff-Appellee, v.  D.C. No.

CR-04-20159-1-JW

LADI M. TULANER,

OPINION

Defendant-Appellant.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California James Ware, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted November 5, 2007—San Francisco, California

Filed January 9, 2008

Before: Sidney R. Thomas, Richard C. Tallman, and Sandra S. Ikuta, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Tallman; Partial Concurrence and Partial Dissent by Judge Thomas

307 310 UNITED STATES v. TULANER

COUNSEL

Jerald W. Newton, Sedona, Arizona, for the appellant.

H.H. (Shashi) Kewalramani, Assistant United States Attorney, Oakland, California, for the appellee.

OPINION

TALLMAN, Circuit Judge:

Ladi Tulaner devised a scheme to defraud Johnson Matthey, Inc. (JMI) and Applied Materials, Inc. (Applied) by posing as an executive of Applied to obtain twelve valuable platinum sputtering discs used in the manufacture of semicon- ductor chips. His scheme failed and he was arrested before he obtained any of…