Vartanian
United States v. Vartanian
Opinion
Lead Opinion
MEMORANDUM *
Hagop Vartanian (“Appellant”) appeals his conviction for aiding and abetting the filing of a false tax return, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2 and 26 U.S.C. § 7206 (1), and two counts of aiding and abetting the making of false statements on a loan application, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2 and 18 U.S.C. § 1014 . The facts and procedural posture of the case are known to the parties, and we do not repeat them here.
Appellant contends that two distinct errors — the omission of the willfulness element from the jury instructions and the exclusion of a defense witness’s testimony — independently require reversal. Since Appellant did not object at trial to the instructions, we review the jury instructions for plain error. See United States v. Perez, 116 F.3d 840, 845-48 (9th Cir.1997) (en banc). We review the exclusion of testimony for abuse of discretion, and we will reverse only where the erroneous evidentiary ruling “more likely than not affected the verdict.” United States v. *664 Pang, 362 F.3d 1187, 1192 (9th Cir.2004). We reject both of Appellant’s arguments.
First, we conclude that the omission of an instruction on one element of the crime was not plain error…