United States v. Hiroyasu Takai Akiko Magneson

Hiroyasu Takai and Akiko Magneson pled guilty to the crimes of bribing an official of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 201 (b)(1)(C) and of conspiring to bribe that official in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 . They were sentenced to four months in home detention under an electronic program, to probation, and to fines of $15,000 apiece. The United States appeals the sentence. We affirm.

FACTS

Akiko Magneson was born in 1947 in Yokohama, Japan. In 1971 she married Ronald Magneson. The Magnesons lived in Australia for 5 years and for 3 years in Venezuela. In 1979 they settled in Los Gatos, California. They have a daughter aged 14. In 1985 Magneson started her own business, Akai’s Gems. She operates the business from her home and makes approximately $5,000 a year. She has also done research into the importation of clothes from Bangkok. Her husband works as a broker for a computer chip brokerage company.

Hiroyasu Takai was born in 1956 in Kashiwara-Cho, Japan. He is a graduate of Saint Andrew’s University, Osaka. In 1978 he settled in San Jose, California where he developed a private language school in 1981 and an aviation school in 1988. He…