## Facts

- Paul and Patricia Tsai owned and operated a restaurant in Tennessee.
- After closing one night, the Tsais took about $1,200 in cash receipts from the restaurant to their home.
- Min Wang, a former restaurant cook, and an accomplice waited at the Tsais’ residence, assaulted and bound them, threatened them with a gun, stole cash totaling about $4,200 (including the restaurant receipts), and fled in the Tsais’ car.
- Wang was later arrested in Georgia.
- Wang was charged with Hobbs Act robbery (18 U.S.C. § 1951), using or carrying a firearm during a crime of violence (18 U.S.C. § 924(c)), carjacking, and transporting a stolen vehicle in interstate commerce.
- The district court acquitted Wang of carjacking but convicted him of Hobbs Act robbery, the § 924(c) firearm offense, and interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle.
- On appeal, Wang challenged only the Hobbs Act conviction and the related § 924(c) conviction.

## Issues

1. Whether sufficient evidence showed the robbery “in any way or degree” affected interstate commerce, as required for Hobbs Act robbery, when the robbery occurred at the owners’ home and involved a modest amount of cash including restaurant receipts.
2. Whether the § 924(c) firearm conviction could stand if the Hobbs Act robbery conviction failed for lack of an interstate-commerce nexus.

## Decision

- The Sixth Circuit affirmed the Hobbs Act robbery conviction, holding the evidence sufficient on the interstate-commerce element.
- The court concluded the robbery depleted assets of a business engaged in commerce because it targeted and took restaurant proceeds.
- The Sixth Circuit affirmed the § 924(c) conviction because the Hobbs Act robbery conviction remained valid as the predicate offense.
- The court left undisturbed the unchallenged stolen-vehicle conviction and the carjacking acquittal.

## Legal Principles

- The Hobbs Act’s commerce element is satisfied by a minimal (de minimis) actual or potential effect on interstate commerce.
- Robbing business proceeds may satisfy the commerce element under a depletion-of-assets theory because the loss can reduce a business’s ability to purchase goods or services in interstate commerce.
- The commerce nexus may be met even if the robbery occurs away from business premises, where the property taken includes business receipts.
- A § 924(c) conviction predicated on Hobbs Act robbery stands where the Hobbs Act conviction is valid.

## Conclusion

The Sixth Circuit held that stealing restaurant receipts from the owners’ home sufficiently affected interstate commerce under the Hobbs Act because it depleted a business’s assets, and it therefore upheld both the Hobbs Act robbery conviction and the associated § 924(c) firearm conviction.


United States v. Wang, 222 F.3d 234 (6th Cir. 2000)