United States v. Tampas
United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
493 F.3d 1291 (2007)
- Written by Sharon Feldman, JD
Facts
Tampas (defendant) was the president and executive director of a YMCA in Georgia. Tampas hired a landscaper to do work at the YMCA and at Tampas’s home. Tampas had the YMCA finance director pay the landscaper’s employees directly as contractors and issue checks based on handwritten notes listing names and payment amounts rather than using typical descriptive invoices. Unlike other bills, the landscaper’s bills were handled exclusively by the finance director. The finance director was terminated for failing to remit payroll taxes withheld from YMCA employees’ paychecks. Thereafter, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and YMCA officials began investigating the YMCA’s books. The officials found large undocumented payments to the landscaper and paychecks Tampas had endorsed over to the landscaper. Tampas got angry when questioned about the payments. Tampas asked a subordinate to prepare a spreadsheet attributing the landscaper’s handwritten receipts to YMCA projects. The subordinate was concerned that the receipts exceeded the value of the work and informed the YMCA’s board and attorney. Tampas was indicted for misleading conduct in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(3). Tampas’s subordinate testified at trial that (1) the timing of Tampas’s request for a spreadsheet reconciling the landscaper’s notes with YMCA projects coincided with growing suspicion about the large payments to the landscaper and his employees and (2) he refused to create the spreadsheet because of concern about the disparity between the value of the work done and the vague handwritten receipts. Tampas was convicted and appealed, contending that there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction for misleading conduct.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Gibson, J.)
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