F.J. Hanshaw Enterprises, Inc. v. Emerald River Development, Inc.

This appeal arises from a bitter sibling rivalry between two wealthy brothers, Frederick and Gordon Hanshaw, whose dispute wound up in a partnership dissolution proceeding in the federal district court. As the court-appointed receiver neared completion of his lengthy, often contentious accounting process and was preparing his report recommending the ultimate allocation of millions of dollars in assets between the brothers, Frederick Hanshaw allegedly offered the receiver a bribe during a private lunch meeting. Once alerted to this alleged bribe, the district court was confronted with the tricky task of determining what actually happened and whether Frederick had attempted to defraud the court. After conducting two evidentiary hearings, the district court found that Frederick had attempted to bribe the receiver, and sanctioned Frederick $500,000 payable to the United States and imposed a $200,000 surcharge against him in favor of Gordon. The principal questions we must address on this appeal relate to the scope and limits of the district court’s authority to deal with allegations of attempted corruption of the judicial pro *1132 cess, and the procedural protections the accused…