12:58 AM, Aug. 9, 2011

 http://www.news-press.com/article/20110808/CRIME/110808014/Federal-prosecutors-appeal-Cabrera-decision?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Home|p

Federal prosecutors are appealing a judge’s order that it would be double jeopardy to retry Samir Cabrera on wire fraud and money-laundering charges, according to a notice filed in court today.

Cabrera was convicted in January 2009 of six counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering after he orchestrated two failed Fiddlesticks Boulevard land deals in 2006 that cost investors $2.8 million. Cabrera sold parcels of land from one company he controlled to another he controlled, for personal profit.

However, his wire fraud convictions rested on the theory he defrauded investors of his honest services, a vague law that has been challenged in recent years. Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court decided honest services fraud would apply only to people who took bribes or kickbacks and federal prosecutors conceded Cabrera's convictions couldn't stand.

As a result, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in March vacated Cabrera's convictions and bounced the case back to U.S. District Judge John Steele to decide whether to retry him.

The case hinges on whether the jury's verdict form was ambiguous and left open the possibility of a new trial.

On the verdict form, Cabrera's jury marked that he was guilty of the wire fraud for defrauding investors of honest services, but they left blank the spot for defrauding investors of money.

Defense attorneys maintained that is the equivalent of an acquittal.

The one-paragraph notice of appeal filed today by U.S. Attorney Robert O’Neil doesn’t give the government’s grounds for contesting Steele’s July 12 decision.

But at a May 6 hearing before Steele, Assistant U.S. Attorney Judy Hunt argued that the judge's instruction to jurors was inadequate and the verdict form didn't allow jurors to voice whether they were deadlocked or found Cabrera not guilty of defrauding investors of money.

She argued a blank can't be interpreted as an acquittal.