United States v. Richard William Landof

Appellant was found guilty of conspiracy to embezzle and misapply bank funds in connection with a check kiting scheme. He was charged in a grand jury indictment along with David Glassman on the conspiracy charge only ( 18 U.S.C. § 371 ). Glass-man was also charged with wilfully and knowingly embezzling bank funds ( 18 U.S.C. § 656 ) and misapplying bank funds ( 18 U.S.C. § 371 ).

Before appellant’s trial, Glassman pled guilty to violating 18 U.S.C. § 656 and to the conspiracy charge. Glassman became the chief prosecution witness against appellant. His testimony fully implicated appellant in the check kiting scheme.

According to Glassman’s testimony, the check kite involved funds for a corporation called Pan American Tires, Inc., which Glassman and appellant had formed. At this time, Glassman was an operations officer for the Bank of California. Glassman would purchase cashier’s checks from the Bank of California using insufficiently funded checks from the corporation’s account at American Bank and Trust Co. The cashier’s checks would then be deposited in the American Bank account to cover the cost of the cashier’s checks. The scheme eventually cost the bank $675,000.

Since the…