In United States v. Kozeny, 667 F.3d 122 (2nd Cir. 2011), a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prosecution, the defendants were charged with having bribed Azerbaijani officials in order to acquire a state-owned oil company. Kozeny remained an international fugitive, but co-defendant Bourke was convicted. On appeal, Bourke challenged a jury instruction which failed to require the jurors to be unanimous as to a single overt act committed to advance the charged conspiracy.
The Second Circuit addressed for the first time the question whether, beyond a general unanimity instruction, the jury was required to be told that they must agree unanimously on which one or more particular overt acts was committed by the conspirators. The court cited to decisions from the Fifth (United States v. Sutherland, 656 F.2d 1181 (5th Cir. 1981)) and Seventh (United States v. Griggs, 569 F.3d 341 (7th Cir. 2009)) Circuits in holding that a jury need not agree on a single overt act in order to sustain a conspiracy conviction. See also United States v. Jackson, 879 F.2d 85 (3d Cir. 1989). The conviction was affirmed.
