United States v. King

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King obtained personal identifying information for more than 100 people, including the Director of the National Security Agency, then created and attempt to use 185 credit and debit cards. He also prepared and submitted 62 false tax refund claims. Reported actual losses from his crimes totaled only $10,980. King was arrested in June 2014. He was not detained before trial. In November King was arrested again, having resumed his fraudulent activities. King pled guilty to five counts, including aggravated identity theft, 18 U.S.C. 1028A(a)(1), which requires a minimum sentence of 24 months consecutive to any other sentence. The court sentenced King to concurrent terms of 24 and 30 months on three access device fraud counts, 18 U.S.C. 1029(a) and 1029(b)(1) and the fraudulent tax refund count, 18 U.S.C. 287, which was below the applicable guideline range, then added the mandatory consecutive 24 months. The Seventh Circuit affirmed. The district judge did what he was supposed to do: calculate the offense level and criminal history category under the Guidelines, then use his independent judgment under 18 U.S.C. 3553(a) to impose a sentence tailored to the individual offender and his crimes. The court rejected King’s argument that section 3553(a)'s “parsimony principle,” which instructs the court to impose a sentence “sufficient, but not greater than necessary,” to serve the statutory purposes of sentencing, required an adjustment of the guideline calculations themselves. View "United States v. King" on Justia Law