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United States v. Hunt,
No. 05-6023 (10th Cir., August 9, 2006) (Published): Forgery: Stephen Jones always said that in state court, the question is usually whether the accused did it, whereas in federal court the question is usually whether what the accused did is a crime. This case is an example of that. Hunt was the manager of the Orienta Co-op and used Co-op funds to trade in commodities, leading eventually to financial ruin and bankruptcy of the Co-op. The feds convicted him of 65 counts of securities forgery and 41 counts of money laundering. REVERSED AND REMANDED with instructions to enter judgment of acquittal because, whatever else Hunt did, he did not "forge" anything(!!) Hunt used Co-op checks to fund the commodities accounts and he was authorized to use the checks by virtue of his position as the Co-op manager. He signed his own name to the checks, the checks were legitimate and used for the purpose for which they were intended, and Hunt made no effort to hide what he was doing from the bank (the Board of the Co-op claimed that Hunt was unauthorized to use Co-op funds to trade). The panel held that Hunt's actions did not violate the statute under which he was convicted; basically, the Government charged Hunt under the wrong statute.
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