United States v. Sears, Roebuck and Company, Incorporated

This is another Abney appeal. See Ab-ney v. United States, 431 U.S. 651 , 97 S.Ct. 2034 , 52 L.Ed.2d 651 (1977). It consists of an appeal by defendant-appellant Sears, Roebuck and Company, Inc. from the district court’s denial of its motion to dismiss an indictment charging Sears with making false statements and invoices to the U.S. Customs Service in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 542 and with conspiracy to file false statements and invoices in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 in connection with the importation of Japanese television receivers. The grounds asserted by Sears in its motion to dismiss were (1) estoppel; (2) discriminatory prose cution; and (3) prejudicial preindictment delay. Following the denial Sears filed this interlocutory appeal in which it again asserted each of these grounds as a basis for overturning the district court’s denial of its motion. We affirm.

I.

THE ABNEY TEST

In view of the numerous recent decisions of this court concerning which interlocutory appeals are proper Abney appeals, we need not rewrite the history of the very rapid recent developments in this area. It will suffice to quote the test we employ to determine the existence of jurisdiction that…