United States Court of Appeals FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

No. 01-3172

United States of America, Appellant, v. Mary June Canine, also known as Mary June Pruitt, also known as Mary Fredrickson, also known as Mary Olson, Appellee.

Submitted: March 12, 2002

Filed: March 19, 2002

Before BYE, FAGG, and BEAM, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

When Mary June Canine married Richard Canine, she knew of his inheritance from his parents and planned to loot it. On several occasions after their marriage in March 1998, the Canines went together to the estate attorneyÂ’s office to obtain RichardÂ’s distribution checks. Each time, the Canines went directly to the bank, Richard endorsed the check, and the check was deposited into their joint checking account. Between May 1998 and March 2000, the distributions amounted to

$394,735.70. Without Richard§ 157. A jury convicted her, but the district court granted judgment of acquittal. The Government appeals, and we reverse.

A district court has very limited latitude when ruling on a motion for judgment of acquittal. United States v. Bennett, 956 F.2d 1476, 1481 (8th Cir. 1992). The district court may not weigh the evidence or assess the credibility of witnesses. Id. The motion should be granted only if, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the Government, a reasonable jury must have had a reasonable doubt about the existence of an essential element of the charged crime. Id. To convict Mary June of bankruptcy fraud, the Government had to prove she had devised a scheme to defraud, and to execute or conceal the scheme she filed a bankruptcy petition, filed a document in a bankruptcy proceeding, or made a false or fraudulent representation concerning or in relation to a bankruptcy proceeding. 18 U.S.C. § 157. Without objection from either party, the jury was instructed that to convict Mary June, it would have to find (1) she voluntarily and intentionally devised a scheme to defraud her husband of money or property received by him as an inheritance, (2) to

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

[UNPUBLISHED]

carry out the scheme to defraud she knowingly failed to disclose a material fact in the Canine bankruptcy proceeding, specifically, "the existence of money or property inherited from Richard CanineÂ’s motherÂ’s estate," and (3) she made the false or fraudulent representation with the intent to defraud Richard. In the district courtÂ’s view, there was insufficient evidence to prove the second element because Mary June had no duty to report RichardÂ’s inheritance.

We agree with the Government that the district court overlooked Mary JuneÂ’s concealment of her individual bank account into which she diverted most of RichardÂ’s inheritance. Mary June never disclosed the account on the bankruptcy schedules, even though they sought information about "[c]hecking, savings, or other financial accounts." Mary June also failed to reveal the existence of the account on the statement of financial affairs, or to the bankruptcy trustee during the creditorsÂ’ hearing. Mary June argues she did not have to reveal the account because it had no money in it when the bankruptcy petition was filed. We disagree. A Government expert testified the account contained funds when the Canines filed their bankruptcy petition. Besides, by failing to disclose the account, Mary June effectively prevented the bankruptcy trustee (and her husband) from discovering the history of the financial transactions concerning that account. See United States v. Key, 859 F.2d 1257, 1261- 62 (7th Cir. 1988) (even if corporations were worthless, failure to disclose ownership interest in them prevented trustee from tracing assets and determining the existence of any fraudulent transfers). Contrary to Mary JuneÂ’s assertion, the jury instruction allowed the jury to consider Mary JuneÂ’s failure to disclose her individual account as the means she used to hide assets held in her name, specifically, RichardÂ’s diverted inheritance money. A reasonable jury could find that by hiding her individual account, Mary June knowingly failed to disclose "the existence of money or property inherited from Richard CanineÂ’s motherÂ’s estate" in the Canine bankruptcy proceeding.

We thus reverse the district courtÂ’s grant of judgment of acquittal, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

A true copy.

Attest:

CLERK, U.S. COURT OF APPEALS, EIGHTH CIRCUIT.