Justia White Collar Crime Opinion Summaries

In 2004, actor John Stamos visited a resort with a group of male friends and met Coss, then 17 years old. Coss and her friend attended a party at Stamos's hotel room. Alcohol was served. Stamos and Coss corresponded for several years and, in 2005, Coss flew to Chicago to visit Stamos while he was filming a television show. In 2008, Coss began dating Sippola. After Sippola saw photographs that Coss had of Stamos, the two devised a plan to obtain money from Stamos in exchange for the photographs. They created two fictitious personas. Emails from a fictional 17-year-old girl whom Stamos had purportedly impregnated while on vacation resulted in a cease-and-desist letter. Coss then indicated that another party had pictures of them using drugs and trashing the hotel room. Stamos's lawyer contacted law enforcement. The FBI stepped in and reached an agreement with Sippola’s fictional character to purchase the photographs for $680,000. Sippola and Coss were convicted of conspiracy to commit extortion 18 U.S.C. 371; 875(d) and sentenced to 48 months.. The Sixth Circuit affirmed, rejecting a challenge to sufficiency of the evidence and a claim to downward adjustment for acceptance of responsibility under USSG 3E1.1.View "United States v. Sippola" on Justia Law

Former Massachusetts state senator Wilkerson, pleaded guilty to attempted extortion (18 U.S.C. 1951) based on her acceptance of money in exchange for favorable influence in her official capacity on issuance of a liquor license and sale and development of publicly-owned land. The district court received a lengthy presentence report, conducted a thorough hearing, and stated reasons for imposing a sentence of 42 months, near the middle of the guidelines. The First Circuit affirmed. The court’s statement that "tax violation by a public official is not a personal matter" is most plausibly interpreted as a segue to make a "larger point" about the public implications of an over-engaged official's failure to attend to her own legal responsibilities. Its statement that Wilkerson "was simply inattentive and inattentive in a way that permitted her to have access to money that she should not have had" was fair comment on the implications of non-compliance with campaign-finance requirements. Its statement that Wilkerson's engagement as a college "consultant" was one of "a series of very embarrassing things" she did in response to her financial troubles was specific to the circumstances of the arrangement. The district court's skeptical appraisal of the arrangement was reasonable. View "United States v. Wilkerson" on Justia Law

Willie Keen, a former zoning official for Dixie County, Florida, appealed convictions arising from two different cases consolidated on appeal. In Case No. 09-16027, a jury convicted Keen of fraudulently obtaining low-income housing funds in violation of federal criminal law. In Case Nos. 09-16028, 10-10438, and 10-10439, a jury convicted Keen, together with former Dixie County Commissioners John Driggers and Alton Land, of federal bribery charges that stemmed from an undercover investigation of corruption in Dixie County. On appeal, Keen, Driggers, and Land challenged their convictions. The court confirmed all convictions after careful review of the record and the parties' briefs, and after having had the benefit of oral argument. However, because the court concluded that the district court erred in calculating Keen's sentence, the court remanded to the district court with a mandate to vacate the sentence and re-sentence him. View "United States v. Keen, Jr.; United States v. Driggers, et al." on Justia Law

In 2002 Bell established mutual funds and raised about $2.5 billion for investment. Most of the firms to which the funds routed money were controlled by Petters. He was running a Ponzi scheme. There was no inventory. New investments paid older debts, with some money siphoned off for personal use. When Petters was caught in 2008, the funds collapsed; about 60% of the money was gone. The funds' bankruptcy trustee filed suit against the funds' auditor, alleging negligence. The district court dismissed without deciding whether the auditor had acted competently, invoking the doctrine of in pari delicto, based on Bell's knowledge of the scheme. The Seventh Circuit vacated, noting that Bell was not stealing funds and that the extent of his knowledge cannot be determined at this stage. An allegation that Bell was negligent but not criminally culpable in 2006 and 2007 makes the claim against the auditor sufficient. View "Peterson v. McGladrey & Pullen, LLP" on Justia Law

A new customer of the bank (Ott) obtained a loan to finance the purchase of a motor home from the dealership that Ott himself owned. Ott presented the certificate of origin and pledged the motor home as collateral. When Ott defaulted two years later, the bank discovered that the certificate of origin was a fake and the motor home did not exist. The bank’s insurer denied recovery because the fake certificate of origin did not meet the insurance bond definition of "Counterfeit." The district court ruled in favor of the insurer. The Seventh Circuit affirmed. The certificate of origin did not imitate an actual, original certificate of origin for a 2007 motor home because there never was an actual, valid, original certificate for the vehicle pledged as collateral: the manufacturer never produced the vehicle described.View "North Shore Bank, FSB v. Progressive Cas. Ins. Co." on Justia Law

In 1996 defendant and his cousin formed companies that bought, stored, and sold grain, and provided farming services. In 1999, the cousins obtained bank loan by falsely representing that valuable contracts existed for future grain deliveries from one company to the other and inflating balances of bank accounts by writing bad checks between accounts. Charged with loan fraud and check-kiting (18 U.S.C. 1344) that cost the bank more than $2.5 million, the cousin pled guilty. Defendant testified that the transactions were in good faith, but was convicted and sentenced to 70 months in prison and restitution in the amount of $1,967,055.30, the outstanding balance on the loans. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, rejecting arguments that the indictment was multiplicitous; that there was insufficient evidence of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt; that sentencing under 2009 guidelines violated the ex post facto clause; that loss and restitution amounts were miscalculated; that an enhancement for obstruction of justice was improper; and that the disparity between defendant’s sentence and that of his cousin was improper.View "United States v. Peugh" on Justia Law

Petitioner, in his capacity as the State Director of the United Public Workers, AFSCME, Local 646, AFL-CIO (UPW), negotiated contracts with dental and health insurance providers, HDS and PGMA, on behalf of UPW members and their families. A jury subsequently convicted petitioner of fifty counts of "theft of honest services" from the UPW and its members, as well as conspiracy, embezzlement, money laundering, and health care fraud. At issue was the instructional omission to the jury regarding honest services fraud in light of the Supreme Court's holding in Skilling v. United States. The court held that the error had no "substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury's verdict." Accordingly, the court affirmed the theft of honest services, money laundering, and health care fraud judgments of conviction against petitioner and affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "United States v. Gary Rodrigues" on Justia Law

Defendant pled guilty to one count of structuring financial transactions and was sentenced to thirty months in prison. On appeal, defendant challenged the procedural and substantive reasonableness of his sentence. The court held that the district court did not commit any procedural error in sentencing defendant and that court adequately explained the sentence it imposed and its reasons for denying both a downward departure and a variance. The court also held that defendant's sentence was substantively reasonable where the district court sentenced him at the bottom of the Guidelines range, after taking into account various factors such as his military service, health, age, and role in the crime. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "United States v. Bordeaux, Jr." on Justia Law

Former Louisiana congressman, William J. Jefferson (defendant), was convicted of eleven offenses - including conspiracy, wire fraud, bribery, money laundering, and racketeering - arising from his involvement in multiple bribery and fraud schemes. Defendant appealed his convictions on several grounds: (1) that an erroneous instruction was given to the jury with respect to the bribery statute's definition of an "official act"; (2) that another erroneous instruction was given with respect to the "quid pro quo" element of the bribery-related offenses; (3) that defendant's schemes to deprive citizens of honest services did not constitute federal crimes; and (4) that venue was improper on one of his wire fraud offenses. The court affirmed each of defendant's conviction except his Count 10 wire fraud conviction and sentence, which the court vacated and remanded for such further proceedings as may be appropriate. View "United States v. Jefferson" on Justia Law

Husband established two "multi-level marketing" companies (pyramid schemes) that supposedly sold health and dietary supplements, but actually sold very little. Wife recruited new members, primarily from an immigrant community. New members would make an initial investment and then receive part of the investments paid in by new recruits. Wife urged potential investors to borrow to invest at the highest possible level, promised that there was no need to sell merchandise, and promised lifetime payments. The couple lived lavishly until they could find no more new investors. By the time the scam imploded, roughly 500 investors had lost about $20,000,000. Both were convicted of numerous counts of mail-fraud, money-laundering, and conspiracy (18 U.S.C. 1341, 1957, 371). Having affirmed husband's convictions in an earlier opinion, the First Circuit affirmed wife's convictions. The court rejected arguments concerning sufficiency of the evidence, wife's knowledge, the elements of money-laundering, and variance from the indictment. View "United States v. Tan" on Justia Law