## Facts

- In June 2005, customers of People’s Bank received a phishing email that directed recipients to a fake People’s Bank website to enter personal and account information.
- Information submitted by victims through the fake site was transmitted to **vercartil@yahoo.com**, an email account used by co-defendant **Ovidiu-Ionut Nicola-Roman**.
- **Bogdan Boceanu** used the email address **damnedasp@yahoo.com**.
- The government introduced emails among Boceanu and others that contained stolen names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and credit-card numbers.
- The email traffic also included a program for extracting email addresses, consistent with collecting targets for phishing and related fraud.
- In a June 2005 exchange, Boceanu requested “a list of working credit numbers,” and Nicola-Roman replied with a subset of numbers tied to the People’s Bank phishing operation.
- A jury found Boceanu guilty of **conspiracy to commit bank fraud** (18 U.S.C. § 1349) and **conspiracy to commit fraud in connection with access devices** (18 U.S.C. § 1029(b)(2)); aggravated identity theft charges were dismissed before trial.
- After the verdict, Boceanu moved under **Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29** for a judgment of acquittal on the bank-fraud conspiracy count, arguing the evidence did not show he knowingly joined a conspiracy aimed at People’s Bank and that the emails were the only evidence linking him to that scheme.

## Issues

1. Whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, a rational jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that Boceanu knowingly and willfully joined an agreement to commit bank fraud against People’s Bank in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1349.

## Decision

- The court **denied** Boceanu’s post-verdict motion for judgment of acquittal under Rule 29 on the bank-fraud conspiracy count (and denied related dismissal relief).
- The court held that the trial evidence supported a finding that a phishing-based scheme targeted People’s Bank customers and amounted to an agreement to commit bank fraud affecting a financial institution.
- The court further held that the jury could reasonably infer Boceanu’s knowing participation from his communications with Nicola-Roman, including his request for “working” credit-card numbers and Nicola-Roman’s response supplying numbers associated with the People’s Bank phishing operation.
- The jury’s guilty verdict on the bank-fraud conspiracy count remained in effect.

## Legal Principles

- On a Rule 29 motion, the court must uphold a conviction if, after viewing the evidence and all reasonable inferences in the government’s favor, **any rational juror** could find the essential elements proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
- The court does not reweigh the evidence or second-guess the jury’s credibility determinations when assessing sufficiency.
- Conspiracy may be proven through circumstantial evidence; the government need not show a formal, written, or express agreement.
- To prove conspiracy to commit bank fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1349, the government must show (1) an agreement to commit bank fraud and (2) that the defendant knowingly and willfully joined that agreement; § 1349 does not require proof of an overt act.
- Evidence of coordinated communications and exchanges of stolen financial identifiers can support an inference that a defendant knew of, and joined, a fraud agreement, even if the defendant was not shown to have personally sent the phishing email or operated the spoofed site.

## Conclusion

The district court held that, given the phishing attack on People’s Bank customers and the June 2005 email exchanges linking Boceanu to Nicola-Roman’s receipt and distribution of phishing-derived credit-card numbers, a rational jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that Boceanu knowingly joined a bank-fraud conspiracy; the court therefore denied Boceanu’s Rule 29 motion and left the bank-fraud conspiracy conviction intact.


United States v. Boceanu, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15292 (Feb. 4, 2013)