Source: cases/18usc1341/f3d-914-1154-us-v-seng-xiong.case
Case source: https://www.neochart.com/catalog/cases/f3d/volume_914/1154_01/index.html
The jury returned guilty verdicts on both counts.
# author: Flash3 (gemini-3.8-flash-high) # triaged-by: Fable (2026-11-10) casedsl 1.2 case /f3d/914/1154-01 name United States v. Seng Xiong cite 914 F.3d 1154 (2019) court United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit date 2019-02-01 url catalog/cases/f3d/volume_914/1154_01/index.html source ir/caselaw/f3d_914.jsonl sha1=19d8e8f56cbe35da13ff8aa24e5d978b13a95912 chars=18071 # single opinion (Wollman, J.); footnotes appended from @16501 belong to it. opinion op : majority by Wollman @0..18071 controlling party p1 : Seng Xiong count c1 : one count of mail fraud and one count of wire fraud (Hmong homeland donations) ? role: section 1341 is only the offense of conviction; the Eighth Circuit applies no element of it. The block below records the jury's unreviewed finding, not a ruling of this court. law 18usc1341 role background posture criminal appeal from jury convictions of mail and wire fraud; no element of either offense is challenged on appeal. Issues decided: preclusion of public-authority and entrapment-by-estoppel defenses (plain error), Fifth and Sixth Amendment claims, sentence. Affirmed. result claimant-won element scheme : satisfied [proved] decider jury review none party p1 count c1 route fraudulent-inducement pattern donations solicited for a fictitious UN- and US-approved Hmong homeland, with promised shares in the future government's surplus fact @1093..1313 [supports] | Relevant here, from mid-2014 to early 2016 Xiong represented to the Hmong community that he was working with the United Nations and the United States government to establish a new country for the Hmong in Southeast Asia. fact @2916..3049 [supports] | He said that his project was advancing and that the United States government had considered, and then approved, the new Hmong nation. fact @6937..7098 [supports] | The evidence showed that United States and United Nations officials were not aware of Xiong or his project and never approved the creation of a new Hmong nation. fact @3476..3662 [supports] | By that time, Xiong had received roughly $1.7 million from Hmong individuals, $169,000 of which he spent on personal expenditures such as food, clothing, air travel, hotels, and escorts. held @8271..8320 | The jury returned guilty verdicts on both counts. ? guard: G2-history-held the block is `decider jury`; the verdict sentence is the decider's conclusion as reported, which is what `held` means for a finding below gloss Jury finding reported by the court of appeals; sufficiency of the evidence was not raised, so the affirmance is not a ruling on this element. Xiong's innocent-intent theory (he believed in the project) was presented to and rejected by the jury. misfit The appellate rulings (Rule 12.3 perceived-government-authority defenses, self-incrimination, compulsory process, sentencing) concern no element of section 1341 and are not recorded as blocks.