United States v. Vinay Sood, United States of America v. David Crisostomo

The United States appeals the District Court of Guam’s orders vacating the convictions of appellees David Crisostomo and Vinay Sood. Both Crisostomo and Sood were convicted of bribery pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 666 in separate criminal proceedings that followed a large-scale investigation into public corruption in the Territory of Guam in the early and mid-1980’s. Following their convictions, this court vacated the conviction of another public official of Guam who had been convicted under the same statute. United States v. Bordallo, 857 F.2d 519 (9th Cir.1988), amended, 872 F.2d 334 (1989), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 818 , 110 S.Ct. 71 , 107 L.Ed.2d 38 (1989). In Bordallo we held that 18 U.S.C. § 666 applied to “states” and their local subdivisions and that because Guam is not a state the statute was inapplicable. Relying upon Bordallo, the District Court of Guam vacated Crisostomo’s and Sood’s convictions. The United States appeals.

The principal difference between this case and Governor Bordallo’s case is that in Bordallo the question of the applicability of the statute was raised on direct appeal, while in each of these cases the issue was not raised until post-conviction collateral…