Reference no: EM134011977

Question

The defendant, a U.S. citizen, has been charged with bribery and misappropriating and laundering millions of dollars earmarked to benefit a community development project. The defendant transferred the illicit funds to accounts the defendant controlled through multiple foreign shell corporations and bribed high-ranking officials to obtain building approvals, while substituting sub-standard materials for billed materials and engaging in shoddy construction workmanship. An employee from one of the defendant's shell corporations became a whistleblower in the government's case against the defendant. The whistleblower gave the government (1) hard copies of email correspondence the whistleblower received from the defendant instructing the whistleblower to move project funds to various accounts; (2) phone videos taken by the whistleblower showing the defendant giving a bribe to a building official at a restaurant; and (3) an audio file the whistleblower recorded during a phone call from the defendant to the whistleblower's cell phone. The prosecution seeks to introduce the evidence from the whistleblower. In this hypothetical, review and analyze each type of evidence separately and carefully, thinking about the following:

1. Are there issues with how the evidence was obtained by the whistleblower?

2. If so, what would those issues be?

3. Is the evidence authentic?