988 F. 2d 124 - United States v. Montgomery

MEMORANDUM**

Wilford Frank Montgomery appeals his conviction, following a jury trial, for making a false statement to the government in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001. Montgomery argues that the district court erred by excluding evidence regarding his knowledge of the capacity in which he made the statement. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and affirm.

We review the district court's decisions regarding the relevancy of evidence for abuse of discretion. United States v. Oren, 893 F.2d 1057, 1060 (9th Cir.1990).

Here, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ("NASA") requested bids for a construction contract. Contractors were required to submit performance and payment bonds guaranteed by a surety as part of their bids. Montgomery signed an Affidavit of Individual Surety ("AIS") which stated that his net worth was $44,973,500.00. A bonding company submitted the AIS to NASA to induce NASA to accept Montgomery as surety for a contractor's bonds. Subsequently, the contractor defaulted on the NASA contract and it was discovered that Montgomery falsely stated his net worth.

At trial, Montgomery sought to introduce evidence that he believed that the bonding company would use the AIS to obtain a loan in order to purchase his assets rather than submit it to NASA to induce NASA to accept him as surety. The district court excluded all such evidence, finding that it was irrelevant because no mental state was required with respect to capacity in order to establish a violation of section 1001.1

Montgomery contends that the district court erred by excluding evidence regarding his knowledge of the capacity in which he signed the AIS because such evidence was relevant to the materiality of his false statement. We disagree.

The government need not prove that a defendant had actual knowledge that his false statement would be submitted to a federal agency in order to establish a violation of section 1001. Oren, 893 F.2d at 1065; see also United States v. Yermian, 468 U.S. 63, 74-75 (1984) (stating that in enacting section 1001 Congress exercised its "power to impose criminal sanctions for deliberately false statements submitted to a federal agency, regardless of whether the person who made such statements actually knew that they were being submitted to the Federal Government").

Here, the government was not required to prove that Montgomery knew that his statement would be submitted to NASA. See Yermian, 468 U.S. at 74-75; Oren, 893 F.2d at 1057. Accordingly, the district court did not err by excluding such evidence as irrelevant.2

AFFIRMED.