Court Clerk’s Bribery Scheme Conviction Affirmed by Second Cir.

The conviction of a former federal court clerk in Manhattan for taking tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to secretly referring more than 35 criminal defendants to a now-disbarred criminal defense attorney was affirmed by a federal appeals court Friday.

The jury convicted Dionisio Figueroa of federal program bribery, which is a legally valid object of conspiracy, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said, affirming the conviction.

• Figueroa had argued that his conspiracy conviction couldn’t stand because the jury might have based it on the “legally invalid object” of receiving unlawful compensation
• The enhanced sentence, based ...