United States v. Charles Yi

Charles Yi appeals his conviction and sentence, assigning error to a jury instruction, and to his custodial sentence for conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act. The judgment is affirmed.

I. FACTS

Yi was the CEO of Millennium Pacific Icon Group, a real estate development company. In April 2004, Millennium purchased Forest Glen, a 204-unit condominium complex, after Yi and some of his Millennium associates did a walk-through of the property.

Joseph Yoon, Millennium’s Forest Glen project manager, testified that Yi commented during the walk-through that he was certain the ceilings contained asbestos because of the age of the building. Yi’s sister, Sheri Yi Hill, was also present at the walk-through. Hill testified that she discussed the ceilings with Yi and the two decided not to touch the ceilings because they assumed the ceilings contained asbestos, which would be costly to remove.

Yi signed a purchase offer for Forest Glen that included a due diligence clause allowing time to review environmental materials and to conduct an environmental review. The seller provided a due diligence binder that included two Phase I environmental reports and an “Operations and…