United States v. Joseph Bronstein

Defendant Joseph Bronstein pled guilty, pursuant to the terms of a plea agreement, to one count of subscribing a false corporate tax return and one count of conspiracy. The district court accepted the defendant’s guilty plea and imposed sentence. Subsequently, the defendant filed a motion under Rule 35 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure to correct a sentence imposed in an illegal manner, claiming that the government had breached its obligations under the plea agreement. The motion was denied, and the defendant appeals. We vacate the judgment below and remand for resentenc-ing.

I. FACTS

The defendant was charged in a multiple-count indictment dated March 19, 1979, with subscribing false individual and corporate tax returns and with conspiracy related to these tax offenses. Bronstein’s brother Irving and John Pelletier, the corporation’s comptroller, were charged under the same indictment with conspiracy and aiding and abetting. The indictment charged the defendant, as president of the family corporation, with diverting funds from the corporation and concealing his activities by writing cash purchase slips on non-existent pur chases. Because of inaccuracies in the…