Fed. Sec. L. Rep. P 93,427 John E. Morgan v. United States

PER CURIAM: This is an appeal from a dismissal of a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to set aside a conviction in February 1971 on two counts of an information charging violation of an injunction entered in December 1968. We affirm. Appellant was president of a Nevada corporation which encountered difficulties with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the sale of unregistered securities. In a civil action, the district court permanently enjoined appellant and other corporate officers from using the mails to sell corporate stock, unless it was exempted from the provisions of Section 5 of the Securities Act, 15 U.S.C. § 77e. Nine months later appellant and others were indicted for conspiracy and sale of unregistered stock, and appellant was charged in two counts with offering to sell “certain [unregistered] securities, to wit, promissory notes . . . ” There followed extended delays and pretrial appearances. After a jury had been impaneled, appellant appeared with counsel and agreed with the government to plead guilty to a superseding information charging him in two counts with a violation of the 1968 injunction. The court accepted the plea after a careful inquiry into the voluntariness of the plea. Appellant now claims that the promissory notes were exempted from registration and that the information failed to charge him with a crime. The district judge denied his § 2255 application without a hearing. The information stated a crime under 18 U.S.C. § 402 and Morgan’s plea was a binding admission of all facts alleged therein. See e. g., North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25, 37, 91 S.Ct. 160, 27 L.Ed.2d 162 (1970); McCarthy v. United States, 394 U.S. 459, 466, 89 S.Ct. 1166, 22 L.Ed.2d 418 (1969); Davis v. United States, 347 F.2d 374, 375 (9th Cir. 1965); Thomas v. United States, 290 F.2d 696, 697 (9th Cir. 1961). The order denying the motion to set aside the convictions is affirmed.