In United States v. Chi, --- F.3d ---, No. 17-50358 (9th Cir. 2019), the Court affirmed the defendant's conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 1957
for engaging in a monetary transaction of over $10,000
derived from a “specified unlawful activity.”
This is a case where the government reached out to prosecute a citizen of South Korea who was
employed as a researcher at a
government-funded geological research institute in South
Korea. He was charged with receiving payments from two
seismometer manufacturers in exchange for ensuring that the
research institute purchased their products.
The “specified unlawful activity” in the
indictment was, as defined in 18 U.S.C. § 1956(c)(7)(B), “an
offense against a foreign nation involving . . . bribery of a
public official;” and the offense against a foreign nation
involving “bribery of a public official” was Article 129 of
the South Korean Criminal Code.
The defendant argued the term "bribery" had the same meaning as in 18 U.S.C. § 201 (which the Korean statute did not fit). The Court disagreed, holding that “bribery of a public official” in § 1956 is defined by that phrase’s “ordinary, contemporary, common meaning,” and is not constrained by the federal bribery statute (sec. 201). Thus, because the crime described in Article 129 fits comfortably within the ordinary meaning of “bribery of a public official” as used in § 1956, the indictment and conviction were proper.
