The following excerpt is from U.S. v. Reyes, 577 F.3d 1069 (9th Cir. 2009):
There is a threshold issue, however, of whether the government satisfied its burden of proving that the false records would have affected the judgment of a reasonable investor. If the government failed in its burden to establish the materiality of the falsification, then the prosecution must be dismissed, and no new trial would be possible. Burks v. United States, 437 U.S. 1, 18, 98 S.Ct. 2141, 57 L.Ed.2d 1 (1978). The government did not, however, fail in its burden.
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