United States v. Yi

Charles Yi (defendant) was CEO of the real estate development company Millennium Pacific Icon Group (Millennium) and a longtime property manager. Millennium purchased a condominium complex called Forest Glen after a walk-through involving Yi and other Millennium employees. At trial, witnesses testified that Yi made statements during the walk-through alluding to the possible presence of asbestos because of the obvious age of the buildings. As part of the purchase, Yi received two reports that contained positive test results for ceiling asbestos. After the purchase, an insurance agent toured Forest Glen, took ceiling samples, and informed a Millennium employee that the samples tested positive for asbestos. Later, Millennium hired contractors to scrape the ceiling but failed to tell them about the asbestos issue, so they were unable to adequately protect themselves. Yi was charged with criminal conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act. Yi testified at his trial that he did not read the reports or any other environmental documents, did not believe that the ceiling had asbestos because a manager told him the inspector’s test came back negative, and had no part in hiring the ceiling scrapers. Yi also testified that he trusted his subordinate employees to read all documents and was very busy. The trial judge gave a jury instruction on deliberate ignorance. Yi appealed, arguing that the facts introduced during trial did not support any finding of deliberate ignorance.