## Facts

- Charles Noel Woodward entered the United States from Brazil through Los Angeles International Airport with his wife.
- At Customs, Woodward completed a declaration form asking whether he or a family member was carrying more than $5,000 in monetary instruments.
- Woodward checked “no” on the form.
- Customs officials questioned Woodward and then decided to conduct a search.
- While being escorted to a search room, Woodward admitted he and his wife were carrying over $20,000.
- Woodward produced about $12,000 from his boot; officers found about $10,000 on his wife in a makeshift money belt.
- Woodward was indicted on two counts based on the same act of checking “no”:
  - Making a false statement to a federal agency, 18 U.S.C. § 1001.
  - Willfully failing to report transporting more than $5,000 into the United States, 31 U.S.C. §§ 1058, 1101 (1976 ed.).
- A jury convicted Woodward on both counts, and the district court imposed consecutive sentences (six months’ imprisonment on § 1001 and three years’ probation on the currency-reporting count).
- Woodward did not argue in the district court that Congress barred cumulative punishment for the two offenses.

## Issues

1. Whether, under the Blockburger test, the currency-reporting offense necessarily includes all elements of a § 1001 false-statement/concealment offense, barring cumulative punishment.
2. Whether Congress intended to permit separate punishments for violations of § 1001 and the currency-reporting statutes arising from the same conduct.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court (per curiam) reversed the Ninth Circuit in part and remanded.
- The Court held the Ninth Circuit misapplied the Blockburger test in treating the § 1001 offense as a lesser included offense of the currency-reporting offense.
- The Court concluded proof of the currency-reporting violation does not necessarily establish a § 1001 violation.
- The Court found no indication Congress intended to forbid separate punishment and emphasized the statutes address different wrongs.
- The disposition reinstated the § 1001 felony conviction alongside the currency-reporting conviction.

## Legal Principles

- Under Blockburger, two offenses are distinct for cumulative-punishment purposes if each requires proof of a fact the other does not.
- A willful failure to file a currency report does not necessarily satisfy § 1001’s concealment theory because § 1001 requires concealment of a material fact “by any trick, scheme, or device.”
- Absent contrary evidence of legislative intent, separate punishments may be imposed for distinct statutory offenses even when the same conduct violates both, particularly where the statutes target different governmental interests.

## Conclusion

The Court held that the currency-reporting offense and § 1001 require different elements, so cumulative punishment is permitted; the § 1001 conviction was reinstated because a currency-reporting violation does not inherently entail concealment “by trick, scheme, or device” under § 1001.


United States v. Woodward, 469 U.S. 105 (1985)