## Facts

- Tiburcio A. Rangel, an EPA employee, submitted three travel vouchers seeking reimbursement for lodging on three business trips.
- For each voucher, he submitted photocopies of “customer copy” Master Charge sales slips as support for lodging expenses.
- The government introduced the travel authorizations and vouchers, the photocopied customer receipts submitted with them, and the corresponding “duplicate merchant copies” retained by the hotels.
- In each instance, the photocopied customer receipts reflected higher lodging amounts than the hotels’ merchant copies, while matching invoice numbers tied the receipts to the same transactions.
- Rangel received approximately $53.59 more than his actual lodging costs.
- A federal jury convicted Rangel of knowingly and fraudulently demanding payment of a debt due from the United States by virtue of a false instrument, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1003.

## Issues

1. Whether photocopies of the customer receipts submitted with the vouchers were inadmissible under the best evidence rule because the original altered receipts were not produced.
2. Whether the hotels’ merchant copies were inadmissible under the best evidence rule because they were not the originals of the receipts Rangel submitted.
3. Whether the travel authorizations, travel vouchers, and Master Charge records were inadmissible under the federal business-records statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1732.
4. Whether the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction if the challenged documents were excluded.

## Decision

- The Eighth Circuit affirmed the conviction.
- The court held the photocopies were admissible because the photocopies themselves were the instruments Rangel used to support his demand for payment; the government therefore needed to prove the contents of those photocopies.
- Alternatively, treating the photocopies as duplicates, the court held they were admissible because Rangel did not raise a genuine issue about their authenticity.
- The court held the travel and Master Charge records, including the hotels’ merchant copies, were admissible as records kept in the regular course of business and properly authenticated.
- With the exhibits properly admitted, the evidence was sufficient to sustain the § 1003 conviction.

## Legal Principles

- Under the best evidence rule, the “original” required is the document whose contents are being proved; when a photocopy is the operative document used in the charged scheme, it may be treated as the original for that purpose.
- Photocopies that qualify as duplicates are admissible to the same extent as originals unless a genuine question is raised about authenticity or admission would be unfair.
- Business records are admissible when made and kept in the regular course of business and supported by an adequate foundation; such records may be used to prove the true amounts charged and to show discrepancies indicative of falsity.
- Documentary evidence showing a defendant submitted inflated supporting documents and obtained excess reimbursement can support a finding that the defendant knowingly and fraudulently demanded payment from the United States by means of a false instrument under 18 U.S.C. § 1003.

## Conclusion

The court upheld Rangel’s conviction, ruling that the photocopied receipts submitted to obtain reimbursement were admissible as the relevant false instruments (or as duplicates absent an authenticity dispute) and that the related travel and hotel records were admissible business records, leaving sufficient evidence of a fraudulent demand for federal payment under 18 U.S.C. § 1003.


United States v. Rangel, 585 F.2d 344 (8th Cir. 1978)