United States v. William F. Raborn, III and Samuel H. Cole

Appellants Raborn and Cole were employees of the United States Postal Service. This appeal stems from charges that appellants corruptly received gifts from two individuals representing corporations doing business with the Postal Service. The charges resulted in a fourteen-count indictment naming Raborn and Cole as co-defendants.

The counts involving Cole were severed and Raborn was tried first. He was convicted of five counts of bribery, 18 U.S.C. § 201 (c), one count of accepting a gratuity, 18 U.S.C. § 201 (g), two counts of submitting false claims against the United States, 18 U.S.C. § 287 , one count of tax evasion, 26 U.S.C. § 7201 , and one count of filing a false return, 26 U.S.C. § 7206 (1). He received a five-year sentence for the bribery, false claims, and tax evasion convictions, a two-year sentence for accepting a gratuity, and a three-year sentence for filing a false return. All sentences are to be served concurrently.

Following Raborn’s conviction, Cole pleaded guilty to two counts of accepting a gratuity, and the trial court, sitting without a jury, found him guilty of two counts of tax evasion, 26 U.S.C. § 7201 . Cole received a sentence of eighteen months on…