UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Paul Bruce CARPENTER, Defendant-Appellant

Paul Bruce Carpenter appeals his conviction and sentence for one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering and eight counts of mail fraud. Carpenter was found guilty following a 27-day jury trial, and he was sentenced to imprisonment for 87 months. On appeal he claims that there was insufficient evidence to convict him on any of the counts, that the district court erred when it instructed the jury, and that the introduction of a tape recording in the case against his codefendant, Jackson, was prejudicial to him. 1 We affirm.

BACKGROUND

The background of the agreement among Carpenter, Senator Alan Robbins, and Clayton Jackson is well stated in our decision in United States v. Jackson, 72 F.3d 1370 (9th Cir.1995), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 116 S.Ct. 1546 , 134 L.Ed.2d 649 (1996), where we said:

Id. at 1374. We later added: “There can ... be little doubt on the record here that if the insurance executives understood that Carpenter was not in the state senate or that their money would be passed on to Robbins, they would not have made the donations Jackson requested.” Id. at 1383.

Carpenter and Jackson were both convicted for their participation in the…

dissenting:

This case is a political corruption case. There is no question that public financing laws have been violated. The issue here, however, is whether various insurance companies have been defrauded.

For many years Clayton Jackson was a preeminent corporate lobbyist in Sacramento, California. Alan Robbins was a State Senator and the Chairman of the Senate Insurance Committee. These two men had a long-running corrupt relationship — Robbins traded legislative assistance to Jackson’s insurance company clients in return for substantial campaign contributions. The contributions to Robbins from the insurance companies became so large that Jackson worried that other members of the Senate Insurance Committee might expect similarly large contributions. In order to solve this problem, Jackson asked Robbins to find a way that the insurance companies could continue to funnel money to Robbins without Robbins having to report the contributions under the finance disclosure laws. Robbins then went to Carpenter, who agreed that Jackson would make recommendations to the insurance companies to contribute to Senator Paul Carpenter. Then Carpenter would funnel the money to Robbins. Carpenter,…

95 F.3d 773 96 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 6620 , 96 Daily Journal D.A.R. 10,808 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Paul Bruce CARPENTER, Defendant-Appellant. No. 95-10056. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted April 8, 1996. Decided Sept. 4, 1996. Sandra Gillies, Woodland, California, for defendant-appellant. Matthew G. Jacobs, Assistant United States Attorney, Sacramento, California, for plaintiff-appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California; Edward J. Garcia, District Judge, Presiding. No. Cr-93-00118-EJG. Before: FERGUSON, D.W. NELSON and FERNANDEZ, Circuit Judges. FERNANDEZ, Circuit Judge: 1 Paul Bruce Carpenter appeals his conviction and sentence for one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering and eight counts of mail fraud. Carpenter was found guilty following a 27-day jury trial, and he was sentenced to imprisonment for 87 months. On appeal he claims that there was insufficient evidence to convict him on any of the counts, that the district court erred when it instructed the jury, and that the introduction of a tape recording in the case against his codefendant,…