## Facts

- Roz Ben Zvi owned a jewelry business, and his sister Luiz Ben Zvi worked there.
- The government alleged the defendants staged a robbery of the jewelry store to defraud an insurer by claiming that large quantities of gold chain were stolen.
- The prosecution contended the purportedly stolen gold had been sold before the staged loss and that the defendants received substantial insurance proceeds.
- A jury convicted both defendants of a multiple-object conspiracy (including wire fraud) and of money laundering based on transactions involving the alleged fraud proceeds.
- Roz was also convicted of filing false income tax returns under 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1), based on underreporting income connected to the scheme.
- At trial on the § 7206(1) counts, the court read the indictment (alleging “material” false statements) and the statutory language referencing “material matter,” but did not separately instruct the jury on materiality; Roz did not object.
- The district court imposed imprisonment (10 years for Roz; 5 years for Luiz), ordered restitution of $6,624,512, and entered criminal forfeiture (including $1,370,000 and two properties).

## Issues

1. Whether the superseding indictment’s money-laundering counts related back to an earlier indictment so as to avoid the statute of limitations, and whether time-barred counts required dismissal.
2. Whether charging the same transactions as both domestic and international money laundering was multiplicitous, requiring dismissal of overlapping counts.
3. Whether Roz’s § 7206(1) convictions required reversal because the jury was not explicitly instructed that the false statements had to be “material.”

## Decision

- The court dismissed all money-laundering counts against Luiz and most money-laundering counts against Roz as barred by the statute of limitations.
- The court dismissed all domestic money-laundering counts as multiplicitous where the same transactions were also charged as international money laundering.
- The court affirmed both defendants’ conspiracy convictions.
- The court affirmed Roz’s convictions for the remaining (non-time-barred) international money-laundering counts and for filing false tax returns under § 7206(1).
- The court reversed the criminal forfeiture judgment against Luiz (entered under the money-laundering statute) and remanded for reconsideration of Roz’s forfeiture, sentencing, and restitution in light of the narrowed set of valid convictions.

## Legal Principles

- A superseding indictment tolls limitations only if it does not broaden or substantially amend the original charges; otherwise, later-added counts may be time-barred and must be dismissed.
- Money-laundering counts brought outside the limitations period are subject to dismissal, and convictions on those counts cannot stand.
- Multiplicity bars multiple punishments for the same conduct; where identical transactions are charged under overlapping money-laundering provisions, duplicative counts must be dismissed.
- Under plain-error review, an omitted jury instruction does not require reversal if the jury charge and trial record, taken as a whole, sufficiently constrained conviction to the charged misrepresentations and conveyed the statutory requirement (including materiality) in context.
- Forfeiture predicated on invalidated money-laundering convictions must be reversed or reconsidered, and related sentencing and restitution may require remand.

## Conclusion

The Second Circuit largely dismantled the money-laundering portion of the case by dismissing time-barred counts and duplicative domestic laundering counts, reversed Luiz’s forfeiture, and remanded for resentencing-related reconsideration, while leaving intact both conspiracy convictions and Roz’s remaining international money-laundering and § 7206(1) tax convictions.


United States v. Zvi, 168 F.3d 49 (2d Cir. 1999)