## Facts

- John A. Walczak, a U.S. citizen, was at Vancouver International Airport in British Columbia to board a non-stop flight to the United States.
- U.S. Customs operated a pre-clearance station at the airport.
- Walczak completed a U.S. Customs declaration form and denied carrying currency or monetary instruments over $5,000.
- U.S. customs officers searched Walczak and his hand-carried luggage and found more than $52,000 in U.S. currency.
- Walczak was questioned by U.S. customs officials and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and then released.
- Days later, Walczak voluntarily surrendered at the U.S. port of entry in Blaine, Washington.
- A grand jury in the Western District of Washington indicted him for making false statements under 18 U.S.C. § 1001; venue was asserted under 18 U.S.C. § 3238.
- The district court denied motions to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, suppress evidence, hold an evidentiary hearing, and disclose grand jury transcripts.
- Walczak entered a conditional guilty plea and appealed the denial of his pretrial motions.

## Issues

1. Whether federal courts had jurisdiction to prosecute a U.S. citizen for a § 1001 false statement made to U.S. Customs officials at a pre-clearance station in Canada, and whether venue was proper under § 3238.
2. Whether the search of Walczak and his carry-on luggage at Vancouver airport by U.S. customs officials was a lawful border-type search under the Fourth Amendment.
3. Whether the district court erred by denying the suppression motion without an evidentiary hearing.
4. Whether Walczak was entitled to disclosure of grand jury transcripts.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit affirmed.
- Jurisdiction and venue were proper: § 1001 applied to the false statement made abroad to a U.S. agency, and § 3238 placed venue in the district where Walczak was first brought or arrested, satisfied by his surrender in the Western District of Washington.
- The Vancouver pre-clearance search was valid as a border-type search analogous to an extended border search.
- No evidentiary hearing was required because Walczak did not present specific, material factual disputes that would warrant suppression.
- Grand jury transcripts were properly withheld because Walczak did not show a particularized need overcoming grand jury secrecy.

## Legal Principles

- A U.S. citizen may be prosecuted in federal court for violating 18 U.S.C. § 1001 through false statements made abroad when the statement concerns a matter within the jurisdiction of a U.S. agency.
- Under 18 U.S.C. § 3238, for offenses committed outside any federal district, venue lies in the district where the defendant is arrested or first brought.
- Searches conducted at foreign pre-clearance facilities for non-stop entry into the United States may be treated as functional equivalents of border searches (or analogous to extended border searches) and generally do not require a warrant or probable cause.
- A defendant is entitled to an evidentiary hearing on a suppression motion only upon sufficiently definite, specific, and nonconjectural allegations of disputed facts that, if resolved in the defendant’s favor, would justify suppression.
- Grand jury materials remain secret absent a showing of particularized need sufficient to outweigh the policy of secrecy.

## Conclusion

The court upheld extraterritorial prosecution of a U.S. citizen for a false customs declaration made at a Canadian pre-clearance station, treated the pre-boarding search as a valid border-type search, and affirmed the denial of both an evidentiary hearing and access to grand jury transcripts.


United States v. Walczak, 783 F.2d 852 (9th Cir. 1986)