United States v. Schultz
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
178 F.Supp.2d 445 (S.D.N.Y. 2002)
Schultz (defendant) was charged with conspiring to receive or possess stolen foreign goods under federal law based on artifacts taken from Egypt in violation of Egypt's Law 117, which declared all Egyptian historical artifacts to be state property. Schultz moved to dismiss, arguing the indictment improperly presupposed he had committed a separate crime under Egyptian law, since Law 117, in his view, was a mere regulation rather than a true ownership statute, meaning conspiring to violate it did not necessarily mean conspiring to possess stolen goods.
Whether a federal indictment charging conspiracy to possess stolen foreign goods improperly presupposes an underlying Egyptian crime, where the foreign patrimony law relied upon vests broad ownership rights, including title and the right to transfer, in the foreign state itself.