# I know we've had a bunch of entrapment questions before, but...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-weve-had-a-bunch-of-entrapment-questions-before-but/293937>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 11, 2005, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-weve-had-a-bunch-of-entrapment-questions-before-but/293937 "2005-03-11T00:43:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![paperbackwriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@paperbackwriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paperbackwriter)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-weve-had-a-bunch-of-entrapment-questions-before-but/293937/1 "2005-03-11T00:43:55Z")

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I am wondering about the specifics in [this case](http://news.findlaw.com/ap/f/66/03-10-2005/0e81001db571a3e9.html).

**Bricker** [once gave a good definition of entrapment](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=151146):

> [@](#):
>
> Entrapment is, as mentioned above, the act by law enforcement of enticing you to commit a crime and then arresting you. Entrapment doesn’t occur merely by making it very easy to commit a crime.  
> If the police park an unlocked truck full of CD players and speakers in a high-crime district, and then pounce on anyone who comes along and steals one, that’s not entrapment. If the police had an undercover officer hanging out around the corner, and urging people to check out the unlocked truck and take what they want, then that’s entrapment.

In the case linked above, Paul Boghosian, the lead investor in one of two competing reorganization plans for Hawaiian Airlines, was arrested after he allegedly agreed to pay a $500,000 bribe to an FBI agent posing as a hedge fund manager in exchange for a $2.5 million loan.

Boghosian and partners pledged $300M of new capital to reorganize HA, but supposedly did not have that amount of capital available. An FBI agent arranged a meeting, posing as a hedge fund manager, and the FBI agent requested the bribe. Boghosian was then arrested when he met with the agent to arrange payment.

To me, it sounds like this fits **Bricker** ’s definition: The FBI arranged the opportunity for the crime, requested the accused’s participation in it, and then arrested him. Is this correct?

Relevent exerpt from the AP article:

> [@](#):
>
> During a meeting last month in New York City, the undercover agent told Boghosian that the Hawaiian Investment Partners’ financial documents and account numbers were bogus and the agent warned that the reorganization plan would collapse because there was no real funding, according to the federal complaint.  
> The FBI agent then asked for a kickback of $500,000 to get his hedge fund to make a loan under those circumstances. Boghosian was arrested Wednesday while meeting with the agent to allegedly accept the loan and arrange payment of the bribe, officials said.

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**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-weve-had-a-bunch-of-entrapment-questions-before-but/293937/2 "2005-03-11T01:25:59Z")

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One thing I didn’t comment on in that definition is an exception to the entrapment rule: if the police can show you were ready to commit the crime anyway, then you may not claim entrapment. A defendant who claims that he was entrapped is vulnerable to a “…searching inquiry into his own conduct and predisposition as bearing upon that issue.” _Sorrells v. US_, 287 U.S. 435 (1932).

I assume that the FBI is going to present evidence that the defendent solicited other bribe opportunities or paid other bribes in similar cirucmstances, and was thus predisposed to committing the extant crime.