United States v. Bornscheuer

[PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT FILED
________________________ U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
MARCH 31, 2009
Nos. 06-14607 & 07-10009 THOMAS K. KAHN
________________________ CLERK

D. C. Docket No. 06-60023-CR-WPD

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff-Appellee,

versus

ALEXANDER BORNSCHEUER,

Defendant-Appellant.

________________________

Appeals from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida
_________________________

(March 31, 2009)

Before TJOFLAT, MARCUS and WILSON, Circuit Judges.

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:
 This case involves prosecutions under the Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1951, for

extortion, and under the Travel Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1952(a)(3), for traveling from

Germany to the United States to carry out the extortion. A jury convicted the

defendants as charged. One of them, Alexander Bornscheuer, now appeals,

challenging the district court’s Hobbs Act instruction to the jury, some of the

court’s evidentiary rulings, and the denial of his motion for a new trial. We affirm.

I.

At the time of the events that gave rise to this criminal prosecution, Claus

Fessler, a German citizen residing in Parkland, Florida, was an entrepreneur who

owned and managed “Police Today,” a very successful magazine publishing firm

based in Germany. In the early 1990s, Alexander Bornscheuer, a German citizen

residing in Deerfield Beach, Florida, who was self-described as coming from a

wealthy family, astute in business and finance, and an “international playboy,”

became interested in acquiring Police Today, and purchased the company from

Fessler for $1 million. Because Bornscheuer failed to prove himself as an astute

businessman, and Fessler wanted the firm’s history of success to continue, Fessler

repurchased the company from Bornscheuer for $1.5 million. In the meantime,

Fessler started a new publishing company, which he incorporated in Florida,

called International Publishing Consultants (IPC). The new firm also met with

2
success. In the mid-1990s, Bornscheuer, along with his associate Reinhard

Berkau,1 purchased Fessler’s interest in IPC for $1 million. Subsequently,

Bornscheuer and Berkau purchased the remaining interests in IPC for $4.85

million.

Although Bornscheuer portrayed himself as an independently wealthy

businessman, he did not personally have the funds to acquire IPC. Instead, he and

Berkau raised money from outside sources, including family, friends, and other

investors. Among those Bornscheuer successfully courted was Eberhard Wahl,

who loaned Bornscheuer $850,000 to assist Bornscheuer in acquiring various

assets, including IPC. To hold and distribute the monies he received from outside

sources, Bornscheuer established an offshore bank in Naru, a small island nation

located in the Micronesian South Pacific. Bornscheuer named the bank the “Bank

of Newport.”

Sometime in 2003, Fessler again formed a Florida corporation called

Broward Investors Group (BIG). Fessler funded the company with $1.2 million.

Bornscheuer approached Fessler and sought to acquire Fessler’s interest in BIG.

Fessler agreed to sell his interest to Bornscheuer for $1.2 million. Because

1
Berkau was an attorney in Germany who, at the time of the events at issue
here, specialized in debt collection.
3
Bornscheuer lacked the funds to pay the purchase price up front, Fessler and

Bornscheuer agreed that Bornscheuer would pay $360,000 at closing,2 and he

would pay $595,000 of the remaining $840,000 by giving Fessler’s wife, Susanne,

a note and mortgage on his Deerfield Beach residence. The parties would treat the

$245,000 balance as an unsecured debt.3 These business dealings began to sour in

2003 and 2004, when Bornscheuer and Berkau’s investors began to demand

payment of their loans. At the end of 2004, Bornscheuer and Berkau demanded

that Fessler agree to rescind their purchases of IPC (i.e., Fessler’s interest) and

BIG. They also demanded that he have Susanne cancel the $595,000 mortgage

she held on Bornscheuer’s residence. When Fessler refused, Berkau said, “You

don’t understand, Fessler, that my investors are dangerous people. They are of the

criminal element. They are the kinds of people who will resort to anything in

order to get their money back.”

2
The transaction closed without Bornscheuer paying the $360,000.

3
The record does not indicate whether Bornscheuer gave Fessler an
unsecured note for $245,000 or an IOU.
4
 The parties attempted to negotiate a settlement, but were unable to reach an

agreement. As a result, Bornscheuer sued Fessler in Broward County, Florida,4

and Berkau sued Fessler for fraud in Germany.5 Berkau prevailed in the fraud

case, obtaining a judgment from the trial court on December 13, 2005.6 Following

the entry of that judgment, Bornscheuer and Berkau, who were in Germany during

much of December 2005, asked Fessler to go to the office of the McRae Law

Firm7 in Delray Beach, Florida, on December 19, 2005, to participate in a

conference call with them. Bornscheuer told Fessler that the reason for having to

4
Bornscheuer filed, in his name or that of the interested party, three
separate lawsuits against Fessler in the Broward County Circuit Court sometime in
early 2005. These lawsuits, collectively, sought the following: (1) payment of a
past-due loan Bank of Newport had made to Fessler; (2) cancellation of the
$360,000 debt Bornscheuer owed Fessler in connection with his purchase of BIG;
and (3) cancellation of the mortgage Susanne Fessler held on Bornscheuer’s
residence.
5
It appears from the record that the dispute in that case arose, in part, after
Bornscheuer and Berkau discovered that Fessler had made misrepresentations
concerning Fessler’s ownership of a licensing claim that Fessler sold to Berkau in
2000. It turned out that Police Today owned the claim, not Fessler; hence, Berkau
acquired nothing in exchange for the money he paid Fessler.
6
The judgment ordered Fessler to pay Berkau as follows: “US$310,000
plus interests [sic] in an amount of US$213,667.74 as well as additional interests
[sic] in an amount of 5 percentage points above the basic interest rate on
US$523,667.74 since June 1, 2005.”
7
The McRae Law Firm represented Bornscheuer in the Broward County
Circuit Court.
5
participate in the call from the law firm’s office was to ensure “a certain degree of

privacy and confidentiality” and to prevent him from recording the conversation.8

The purpose of the call, Bornscheuer said, was to discuss the steps the parties

might take in response to the German court’s judgment.

The conference call took place as scheduled.9 During the call, Bornscheuer

and Berkau repeated the demand for rescission that they had made twelve months

earlier. They said that, unless he complied with their demand, they would (1)

continue pressing their lawsuits in the Broward County Circuit Court and in

Germany; (2) have the German authorities bring criminal charges against him for

fraud; and (3) report him, his wife, and his three children to the federal

immigration authorities for violating the conditions of their visas, which could

result in their deportation. Bornscheuer and Berkau also reminded Fessler that

their investors were dangerous people and that if he did not meet their demand,

they could not guarantee his or his family’s safety.

8
Bornscheuer made certain that an employee of the law firm would be
present during the call to ensure that Fessler did not record it.
9
A law firm employee sat with Fessler during the phone call and ensured
that he did not record the conversation. The conversation lasted approximately 20
minutes. The employee did not speak German and thus did not understand what
was said.
6
 Bornscheuer returned to the United States sometime around Christmas of

2005, and, on December 28, he had Fessler meet him at his Deerfield Beach home.

There, Bornscheuer repeated his and Berkau’s threats of continuing litigation,

criminal actions, and deportation. Bornscheuer also mentioned that one of his

investors, Eberhard Wahl, was a dangerous underworld figure who would do

whatever was necessary to recover his money. Bornscheuer related that Wahl

knew where Fessler and his family lived10 and that he was struggling to hold Wahl

at bay pending Fessler’s compliance with his and Berkau’s demand. Bornscheuer

stated that Fessler had to comply by mid-January; otherwise, he and his family

would be at grave risk. Bornscheuer noted that Fessler’s compliance would

include the cancellation of the $360,000 he still owed for the purchase of BIG; the

release of the $595,000 mortgage Susanne held on his residence; and a payment of

$1 million in U.S. currency.

Fearing that he and his family were in grave danger, Fessler immediately

contacted the FBI. After he met with Special Agents William Schureck and

Donald VanHoose, the FBI began investigating Bornscheuer and his associates.

The FBI instructed Fessler to record all future conversations with Bornscheuer,

and Berkau, and to agree to any demands they made.

10
Bornscheuer told Fessler that Wahl had driven past Fessler’s house.
7
 Fessler spoke with Bornscheuer by telephone on January 2, 2006, and they

scheduled a meeting for January 14, 2006, at which Fessler would close the

rescission of the IPC and BIG transactions in accordance with Bornscheuer and

Berkau’s demand. The following parties were to attend the meeting: Bornscheuer,

Berkau, Claus and Susanne Fessler, and Claus’s attorney in Germany, Hartmut

Mertin. Following their telephone conversation, Bornscheuer sent Fessler a fax,

which memorialized the terms of the closing. The fax stated:

There is agreement [sic] that the conversation that will take place on
January 14th should not end in a Turkish bazaar. In other words, the
settlement amount we are striving for in the amount of one million
U.S. dollars is not subject of the negotiations [sic]. Rather, the
subject of the negotiations is the how, that is, how the non-cash
portion of the settlement amount could be provided.

The fax further listed several points of agreement, including: (1) Susanne Fessler’s

cancellation of the $595,000 mortgage; (2) Fessler’s liquidation of the companies

which he owned;11 (3) the dismissal of lawsuits pending in the Broward County

Circuit Court and in Germany; and (4) the disassociation of the parties “from all

possible future adverse actions.”

On January 4, Fessler and Bornscheuer again met at Bornscheuer’s home,

this time to discuss the contents of the fax. As the FBI instructed, Fessler recorded

11
The record does not identify the companies that would be affected by this
agreement.
8
the conversation. The two men went over the terms of the settlement and

discussed a criminal complaint that had been filed against Fessler in Germany.

Fessler asked what Bornscheuer meant by the words “possible future adverse

actions.” Bornscheuer responded,

that is naturally expressed obscurely, with all intentions very obscure.
You know very well that I can’t write something here, in black and
white, something that could possibly be laid out as coercion. That’s
clear, you know very well what is meant with that. What is meant is
that you don’t do anything that could harm us, and that we neither go
after your [U.S. immigration] visa, nor conduct criminal proceedings.

Fessler and Bornscheuer also talked about Wahl. Bornscheuer reminded

Fessler of Wahl’s background and went into some detail about the violent methods

Wahl used to collect rent from deadbeat tenants in Germany. Fessler asked

Bornscheuer whether any harm would come to him or his family, and Bornscheuer

replied that he and Fessler were both chess players and that Fessler knew that he

could not answer that question.

On January 6, Bornscheuer telephoned Fessler. Fessler tape-recorded the

call. Bornscheuer told him that they had to close by the end of the month;

otherwise, it would be “total war” and Bornscheuer could not “stop anything.”

On January 9, Bornscheuer called Fessler again. As recorded, Bornscheuer told

9
Fessler that he had spoken with Wahl and Wahl had agreed that he would “ne’er

darken Fessler’s door” in exchange for $500,000.

On January 14, the parties—Bornscheuer, Berkau, the Fesslers, and

Mertin—met, as scheduled, at Bornscheuer’s house.12 They discussed the terms of

the fax Bornscheuer had sent Fessler, and Bornscheuer reiterated that the terms

were non-negotiable. Berkau also advised Fessler that, if the parties failed to

reach a settlement, Fessler would be subject to criminal action. Mertin urged

Fessler to reject the settlement proposal. However, in accordance with the FBI’s

instructions to agree to any demands made on him, Fessler rejected Mertin’s

counsel. He then asked Mertin to leave the meeting and to wait outside in the car.

After Mertin left, Berkau reminded Fessler that dangerous people were

putting pressure on him for payment and that he was doing all he could to restrain

them from harming the Fesslers. Bornscheuer also suggested that Fessler use an

office building he owned as collateral for the settlement amounts.13 The office

building was estimated to be worth $2 million. Also, as for Wahl, Bornscheuer

12
Claus Fessler came to the meeting armed with a tape recorder.
13
The tape recording of the meeting does not indicate whether Fessler was
to use the building as collateral for a bank loan or to secure a note he would give
Bornscheuer and Berkau. Because Fessler deeded the building to Bornscheuer,
our inference is that the building was not used as collateral.
10
would pay Wahl $500,000 from the $1 million Fessler had agreed to pay

Bornscheuer and Berkau. Bornscheuer assured the Fesslers that this would keep

Wahl from doing anything to harm them or their children.

Wanting to hear direct assurances from Wahl, Fessler asked Bornscheuer to

place a telephone call to Wahl. Bornscheuer agreed and called Wahl. He used a

speaker phone so the Fesslers could speak directly to Wahl. Wahl assured the

Fesslers that, if they settled, they would have nothing to fear. Fessler asked Wahl

whether his family would be harmed if he did not settle; Wahl’s answer was that

he believed a settlement would be reached. Bornscheuer interjected that what

Wahl might do if Fessler refused to settle could not be discussed over the

telephone.

Later in the day, Bornscheuer emailed Steve Goerke, an attorney with the

McRae Law Firm, the terms of the verbal agreement the parties had reached at the

meeting. The terms were as follows: (1) Susanne would release the $595,000

mortgage she held on Bornscheuer’s home; (2) all legal actions would be

dismissed, and there would be no future legal actions between the parties; (3)

Fessler would transfer ownership of the office building he owned to Bornscheuer,

with Bornscheuer assuming the existing mortgage of approximately $1,165,000;

(4) the note reflecting Bornscheuer’s $360,000 debt to BIG would be cancelled;

11
(5) neither Bornscheuer nor Fessler would seek attorney’s fees in the litigation

pending in the Broward County Circuit Court; and (6) Fessler would pay Berkau

between $400,000 and $520,000 in cash.14

II.

On January 26, 2006, a Southern District of Florida grand jury handed down

a four-count indictment against Bornscheuer, Berkau, and Wahl. Count 1 charged

them with conspiring from December 2005 through January 14, 2006, in violation

of 18 U.S.C. § 371,15 to extort money and the forgiveness of debts from Claus and

Susanne Fessler, in violation of the Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1951,16 and to travel

14
This is the first indication in the record that Fessler would make such a
payment. Nothing in the record indicates who would fix the precise amount of the
payment.
15
Section 371 of Title 18 reads:

If two or more persons conspire . . . to commit any offense against the
United States . . . and one or more of such persons do any act to effect
the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or
imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.
16
The Hobbs Act reads in relevant part:

(a) Whoever in any way or degree obstructs, delays, or affects
commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in
commerce, by robbery or extortion or attempts or conspires so to do,
or commits or threatens physical violence to any person or property in
furtherance of a plan or purpose to do anything in violation of this
section shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than
12
in foreign commerce with intent to commit such extortion, in violation of the

Travel Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1952(a)(3).17 Count 2 charged the defendants with

twenty years, or both.

(b) As used in this section—

(1) The term “robbery” means the unlawful taking or obtaining of
personal property from the person or in the presence of another,
against his will, by means of actual or threatened force, or violence,
or fear of injury, immediate or future, to his person or property, or
property in his custody or possession, or the person or property of a
relative or member of his family or of anyone in his company at the
time of the taking or obtaining.

(2) The term “extortion” means the obtaining of property from
another, with his consent, induced by wrongful use of actual or
threatened force, violence, or fear, or under color of official right.

(3) The term “commerce” means commerce within the District of
Columbia, or any Territory or Possession of the United States; all
commerce between any point in a State, Territory, Possession, or the
District of Columbia and any point outside thereof; all commerce
between points within the same State through any place outside such
State; and all other commerce over which the United States has
jurisdiction.

18 U.S.C. § 1951.
17
The Travel Act reads in relevant part:

(a) Whoever travels in . . . foreign commerce . . . with intent to—
....

(3) . . . promote, manage, establish, carry on, or facilitate the
promotion, management, establishment, or carrying on, of any
13
extortion, in that they obtained or attempted to obtain property of the Fesslers,

with their consent,

induced by the wrongful use of actual and threatened force, violence
and fear, in that defendants did threaten to harm [Claus Fessler],
[Susanne Fessler] and their children and take other action if the
defendants did not receive monies and the forgiveness of debts from
[Claus Fessler], and [Susanne Fessler].

Count 3 charged Bornscheuer, and Count 4 charged Berkau, with traveling in

foreign commerce to commit extortion. The defendants pled not guilty and stood

trial together.

The trial began on April 3, 2006. The Government’s case in chief

established the facts we have set out in part I, supra. The defendants called only

one witness in their defense, Mitchell McRae, who had previously represented

Berkau in a lawsuit and was acting as counsel for Bornscheuer in the cases he had

brought against Fessler in the Broward County Circuit Court. He did not hear any

unlawful activity,
and thereafter performs or attempts to perform—
(A) an act described in paragraph . . . (3) shall be fined under this
title, imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both[.]

(b) . . . ‘unlawful activity’ means . . . (2) extortion . . . in violation of
the laws of the State in which they are committed or of the United
States. . . .

18 U.S.C. § 1952.
14
of the conversations that Bornscheuer and Berkau had with Fessler, so his

testimony did not touch on any of the conduct that gave rise to the defendants’

indictment.

At the close of the evidence, the defendants moved for judgment of

acquittal. The district court denied their motion and then conferred with counsel

about the jury instructions. The court informed counsel that it planned to give the

Eleventh Circuit’s Pattern Jury Instruction on the Hobbs Act, which is as follows:

Title 18, United States Code, Section 1951(a), makes it a Federal
crime or offense for anyone to extort something from someone else
and in doing so to obstruct, delay or affect commerce or the
movement of articles in commerce. The Defendant can be found
guilty of that offense only if all of the following facts are proved
beyond a reasonable doubt:

First : That the Defendant induced the person described in the
indictment to part with property;

Second : That the Defendant did so knowingly and willfully by means
of "extortion," as hereafter defined; and

Third : That the extortionate transaction delayed, interrupted or
affected commerce.

The term "property" includes not only money and other tangible
things of value, but also includes any intangible right considered as a
source or element of income or wealth.

Extortion means to obtain property from someone else with that
person's consent, but whose consent is brought about or induced by
the wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence or fear.

15
 The term "fear" means a state of anxious concern, alarm or
apprehension of harm, and it includes fear of economic loss as well
as fear of physical violence.

Eleventh Circuit Pattern Jury Instructions (Criminal) 66.1 (2003) (emphasis

added).

Bornscheuer and Berkau objected to the two parts of the instruction we have

underscored. Their first objection was to the definition of extortion. Although the

word “or” appears between “violence” and “fear” in the statutory definition of

“extortion,” Count 2 of the indictment uses the word “and” instead of “or.” They

therefore asked the court to insert “and” for “or” in its proposed instruction. The

district court summarily overruled the objection. The second objection addressed

the inclusion of “fear of economic loss” in the definition of “fear.” Bornscheuer

and Berkau argued that the phrase “fear of economic loss” should be omitted

because the Government, in its opening statement to the jury, took the position

that the extortion in this case was based on the Fesslers’ fear of physical violence,

not a fear of economic loss.18 The court overruled the defendants’ second

18
The defendants argued that if the court’s Hobbs Act instruction included
the “fear of economic loss” language, the court would be amending the indictment
in contravention of the Fifth Amendment, which states that “[n]o person shall be
held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment
or indictment of a Grand Jury. . . .” U.S. Const. amend V. Bornscheuer repeats
this Fifth Amendment argument in his brief. Because it is clear that he was not
16
objection on the ground that the evidence was sufficient for the jury to find that

the Fesslers feared economic loss as well as physical violence. The court therefore

included the pattern instruction in its charge to the jury.

On April 21, the jury returned its verdicts, finding the defendants guilty on

all counts. Post-verdict, the defendants renewed their motions for judgment of

acquittal and, alternatively, moved the court for a new trial.19 The court denied

their motions and thereafter sentenced Bornscheuer and Berkau to prison terms of

thirty-seven months and Wahl to a prison term of thirty months. Bornscheuer now

appeals.20

convicted of a crime not alleged in the indictment in this case, we confine our
discussion to the question of whether the district court erred in instructing the jury
as it did, and we do not refer to the Fifth Amendment prohibition against
convicting an accused for a crime not presented in the indictment.
19
The defendants moved for a new trial based on newly discovered
evidence, which included the opinion of a German appellate court affirming the
trial court’s judgment against Fessler and an order of the Broward County Circuit
Court denying Fessler’s motions for summary judgment in three pending cases.
The court denied the motions because these rulings occurred subsequent to the
defendants’ commission of the charged offenses and, thus, could not have had a
bearing on the defendants’ intent at that time. As for the other newly discovered
evidence, the court found that it was merely cumulative or impeaching and, as
such, would not have affected the outcomes of the trial.
20
Berkau did not appeal. Wahl filed a notice of appeal but abandoned it.
On September 27, 2006, we dismissed Wahl’s appeal on his motion.
17
 Bornscheuer’s appeal challenges the district court’s refusal to delete from

the jury instruction on the elements of the Hobbs Act the words “fear of economic

loss,”21 evidentiary rulings the court made during the trial, and the court’s refusal

to grant a new trial. We consider these challenges in order.

III.

A.

The Hobbs Act offense contains two elements: (1) extortion, and (2)

interference with interstate commerce. See Stirone v. United States, 361 U.S. 212,

218, 80 S. Ct. 270, 274, 4 L. Ed. 2d 252 (1960); United States v. Kaplan, 171 F.3d

1351, 1354 (11th Cir. 1999). A constituent sub-element of “extortion” is the

victim’s fearful state of mind. United States v. Grassi, 783 F.2d 1572, 1578 (11th

Cir. 1986). In Grassi, we defined “extortion” as obtaining “property from

someone else with his consent, but whose consent is brought about or induced by

the wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence, or fear.” In doing so, the

Grassi court necessarily adopted the following definition of “fear”: “‘[F]ear’

means a state of anxious concern, alarm or apprehension of harm, and it includes

21
Bornscheuer’s argument that the court erred in including the “fear of
economic loss” wording in its Hobbs Act instruction applies to the Count 1 charge
of conspiracy to violate the Hobbs Act as well as the Count 2 charge of a
substantive Hobbs Act offense.
18
fear of economic loss as well as fear of physical violence.” Id. at 1577 (emphasis

added);22 see United States v. Vallejo, 297 F.3d 1154, 1165 (11th Cir. 2002);

accord United States v. Sopher, 362 F.2d 523, 527 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 385

U.S. 928, 87 S. Ct. 286, 17 L. Ed. 2d 210 (1966); Bianchi v. United States, 219

F.2d 182, 189 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 349 U.S. 915, 75 S. Ct. 604, 99 L. Ed. 1249

(1955). The jury instruction the district court gave recited these Grassi definitions

verbatim.23 Putting aside the fact that Grassi bound the district court to include the

“fear of economic loss” wording in its Hobbs Act instruction—because the

evidence clearly supported a finding that the Fesslers were threatened with

22
In Grassi, two businessmen, Wilson and Williams, set up an illegal tax
shelter in the Bahamas. The two became entangled with two men who purportedly
had ties to the Mafia: Santerelli and Grassi. Santerelli and Grassi became angry
when Wilson and Williams left them out of a major deal, and they physically
assaulted them and made various thinly-veiled threats to induce them to turn over
one-third of any profit made as a result of the venture. See Grassi, 783 F.2d at
1573–74. Although the evidence presented at trial strictly supported a conviction
for extortion based on the use of fear of physical violence, we quoted and adopted
the district court’s use of the following definition of “fear” in its charge to the
jury: “‘Fear’ means a state of anxious concern, alarm or apprehension of harm, and
it includes fear of economic loss as well as fear of physical violence.” Id. at 1577.
23
The evidence fully supported the district court’s inclusion of the “fear of
economic loss” wording in its Hobbs Act instruction; although the threats made to
the Fesslers were directed principally to their persons, the threats involved
financial consequences as well.
19
economic loss as well as physical violence—Bornscheuer’s argument that the

wording does not square with a principled reading of the Hobbs Act rings hollow.

Bornscheuer contends that the meaning of the term “fear,” as used in the

indictment, must be drawn from its neighboring words—in the statutory

interpretation context, we refer to this as noscitur a sociis. According to

Bornscheuer, “fear” must be defined, in accordance with the words used in the

indictment, as “a state of anxious concern, alarm or apprehension of harm . . . of

actual and threatened force [and] violence.” Any instruction defining “fear”

otherwise, he continues, necessarily amends the indictment. We note, however,

that an equally applicable canon of construction exists, namely that all words in a

text must be given independent meaning. Cf. United States v. Menasche, 348 U.S.

528, 538–39, 75 S. Ct. 513, 520, 99 L. Ed. 615 (1955) (“The cardinal principle of

statutory construction is to save and not to destroy. It is our duty to give effect, if

possible, to every clause and word of a statute.” (internal quotation marks and

citations omitted)); Davis v. Chevy Chase Fin., Ltd., 667 F.2d 160, 170 (D.C. Cir.

1981) (applying the contract law credo that “every word in an agreement should be

given meaning”). Under this maxim, if we defined “fear” narrowly as merely

pertaining to “actual and threatened force [and] violence,” we would strip the term

of its independent meaning as assigned by this court in Grassi.

20
 Endeavoring to give effect to each term of the indictment, we read Count 2

of the indictment as charging Bornscheuer with illegally obtaining or attempting to

obtain property with the consent of the victims “induced by the wrongful use of

actual and threatened force, violence and fear.” “Fear,” as defined in Grassi,

means “a state of anxious concern, alarm or apprehension of harm and it includes

fear of economic loss as well as fear of physical violence.” Grassi, 783 F.2d at

1577. Therefore, the indictment charged Bornscheuer with extortion under

theories of physical violence and economic loss. We find further support for this

reading in the next clause of Count 2, which states that Bornschuer and his co-

defendants “did threaten to harm [Claus and Susanne Fessler] and their children

and take other action” if their demands were not met. We read “take other action”

as including the commission of acts calculated to cause economic loss. Such a

reading of the indictment mirrors the instruction given to the jury—which was

consistent with Grassi—and leads us to the conclusion that the court did not err in

giving the pattern jury instruction verbatim.

B.

Bornscheuer argues, as he did during the charge conference the district

court held prior to counsel’s closing arguments, that the court should have

excluded the “fear of economic loss” wording from its Hobbs Act instruction

21
because the prosecutor, in his opening statement to the jury at the beginning of the

trial, told the jury that the defendants conspired to obtain the Fesslers’ property by

threatening the Fesslers with physical violence, but not economic loss. In other

words, despite the fact that the evidence showed that the defendants’ threats, if

carried to fruition, would have resulted in economic loss—the expense the

Fesslers would necessarily incur in defending criminal and civil lawsuits and

undergoing a possible deportation proceeding—the court should have bound the

United States to the representation the prosecutor happened to make in his opening

statement to the jury. Bornscheuer cites no precedent in support of this argument,

and we are aware of none.24 His argument therefore fails.

IV.

Bornscheuer argues that the district court violated his rights under the

Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment by admitting as evidence, through

the testimony of Susanne Fessler, statements Claus Fessler made to her describing

24
Bornscheuer’s argument suggests, in part, that the district court
effectively amended the indictment—in violation of his Fifth Amendment right to
be held to answer only on indictment by a grand jury—by authorizing the jury to
find against the defendants on a theory the Government had eschewed in opening
statement. Bornscheuer cites no authority, and we are aware of none, for the
proposition that an indictment must be narrowed to conform to the prosecutor’s
opening statement to the jury at the commencement of a trial.
22
the threats Bornscheuer had made.25 His argument is meritless. Although his brief

contains broad assertions about the Government’s use of out-of-court statements

that came in through Susanne Fessler’s testimony, the brief fails to cite any

statement that came in over a hearsay objection. Perhaps such failure is due to the

fact that the majority of the out-of-court statements Susanne Fessler recited were

elicited by Bornscheuer’s attorney during cross-examination. Bornscheuer cannot

complain here about testimony he elicited. Ford v. Garcia, 289 F.3d 1283,

1293–94 (11th Cir. 2002); see also United States v. Martinez, 604 F.2d 361, 366

(5th Cir. 1979) (“The accepted rule is that where the injection of allegedly

inadmissible evidence is attributable to the action of the defense, its introduction

does not constitute reversible error.”).26

25
We review a district court’s evidentiary rulings for abuse of discretion.
Old Chief v. United States, 519 U.S. 172, 174 n.1, 117 S. Ct. 644, 647 n. 1, 136 L.
Ed. 2d 574 (1997); United States v. Abel, 469 U.S. 45, 54–55, 105 S. Ct. 465,
470–71, 83 L. Ed. 2d 450 (1984). “An abuse of discretion arises when the district
court’s decision rests upon a clearly erroneous finding of fact, an errant conclusion
of law or an improper application of law to fact.” United States v. Frazier, 387
F.3d 1244, 1276 n.12 (11th Cir. 2004) (en banc) (Tjoflat, J., specially concurring)
(quotations and citations omitted).
26
In Bonner v. City of Prichard, 661 F.2d 1206, 1209 (11th Cir. 1981) (en
banc), this Court adopted as binding precedent all decisions of the former Fifth
Circuit handed down prior to close of business on September 30, 1981.

23
 Bornscheuer’s brief cites out-of-court statements other witnesses repeated

over a hearsay objection. Most of these statements were either not hearsay or fell

within a hearsay exception. For example, during the prosecutor’s direct

examination of Susanne Fessler, the court overruled Bornscheuer’s hearsay

objection to the following question:

Q. Had [Berkau] told you what types of clients he represented?

A. He told me—he told us about from [sic] the Hell’s Angels at
one point, that he did represent them.

The district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the testimony, as such a

statement is admissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 801(d)(2)(E) as a

statement of a co-conspirator made in furtherance of a conspiracy. See Lucas v.

W.W. Grainger, Inc., 257 F.3d 1249, 1256 (11th Cir. 2001) (stating that we may

affirm the district court's judgment on any ground that finds support in the record).

Furthermore, the answer the question called for was relevant, because the jury

could reasonably infer from Berkau’s answer, which revealed Berkau’s association

with a group of people notorious for using violence, that it intimidated Susanne

Fessler.27 In sum, we find nothing in the record to support Bornscheuer’s abuse-

of-discretion challenges to the district court’s evidentiary rulings.

27
Also, the statement was not offered for the truth of the matter asserted. It
was offered to demonstrate the affect it had on Susanne. See Fed. R. Evid. 801(c).
24
 V.

Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 33 provides the district court with

discretion to grant a defendant a new trial on the basis of newly discovered

evidence “if the interest of justice so requires.” Bornscheuer argues that the

district court abused this discretion when it refused to grant his motion for a new

trial after reviewing the new evidence he had presented—namely, a German

appellate court’s opinion affirming a judgment Berkau had obtained against

Fessler and the Broward County Circuit Court’s order denying Fessler’s motions

for summary judgment in consolidated cases pending in that court. To obtain a

new trial based on newly discovered evidence, the “movant must demonstrate that

the evidence was discovered after trial, that due diligence was shown, and that the

evidence was neither cumulative nor impeaching but actually material and likely

to produce a new result.” United States v. Fernandez, 136 F.3d 1434, 1438 (11th

Cir. 1998) (quotation and citation omitted). Bornscheuer contends that these

rulings are relevant to the issue of his state of mind, and thus his intent, during the

time he allegedly conspired to commit the Hobbs Act offense. The district court

disagreed, concluding the obvious: Bornscheuer could not have been thinking

25
about court rulings that had not yet issued. We likewise disagree. The district

court acted well within its discretion in denying Bornscheuer a new trial.

VI.

We find no basis in Bornscheuer’s arguments for reversing or vacating the

district court’s judgment and remanding the case for a new trial. The court’s

judgment is, accordingly,

AFFIRMED.

26