United States v. Henry J. Bleckner

This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction entered on May 16, 1978 of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States by hindering the impartial application of federal funds in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and four counts of wilfully making false statements to an agency of the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001 .

On or about June 18, 1973, the appellant, Henry Bleckner, a business representative of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (“SFRA”), met William Lynch, an employee of Lynch & Sons Vans and Storage (“Lynch & Sons”), a family-owned moving and storage company. According to Lynch’s testimony, among the subjects discussed at the meeting was the federally assisted relocation of a food processing plant, the Oppenheimer Casing Company (“Oppenheimer”), from Hunter’s point to South San Francisco as part of a joint city/federal urban renewal project. Lynch testified that appellant made a statement which Lynch took to mean that if he (Lynch) put three bids together, the minimum required by SFRA regulations, the relocation job would be his.

Although never instructed by Bleckner to do so, Lynch sought to create the appearance of competitive bidding by…