Justia U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

Defendant was the mastermind of a Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 230 investors out of over $22 million. Defendant pled guilty to bank fraud and to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The district court sentenced Defendant to concurrent terms of sixty months’ imprisonment on the wire fraud conspiracy count and 242 months on the bank fraud count. Restitution was also ordered in the amount of $10,629,021. Defendant appealed, arguing that his 242-month sentence was too high. The First Circuit affirmed, holding that the 242-month sentence was both procedurally and substantively reasonable. View "United States v. Reyes-Rivera" on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Defendant, a former Massachusetts state trooper, was convicted of knowingly participating in the use of extortionate means to attempt to collect an extension of credit. The First Circuit affirmed, holding (1) the district court’s finding of discrimination with respect to the government’s attempt to strike one juror and the court’s chosen remedy was not inadequate under Batson v. Kentucky; (2) the district court did not err in denying Defendant’s motion for acquittal based on insufficiency of evidence; and (3) the district court did not err in instructing the jury, and even assuming that the district court committed error, the error was harmless. View "United States v. Analetto" on Justia Law

Appellant was the target of a grand jury investigation into an alleged scheme to defraud investors regarding the salvaging of a sunken vessel. The government moved to compel the production of documents from Appellant’s attorneys in connection with the grand jury investigation. The district court granted the motion. The court also granted the government’s motion for a judicial determination that the crime-fraud exception applied to materials seized from Appellant’s home, thereby rejecting Appellant’s claim of attorney-client privilege. In Appellant’s opposition to the government’s motion to compel, Appellant requested that the district court conduct an in camera review of the documents that were the subject of the motion to compel. The district court did not address this request. The First Circuit affirmed, holding (1) there was ample evidence for the district court to conclude that Appellant was engaged in a scheme to commit a crime or fraud and that at least some of the communications between Appellant and Appellant’s attorneys were intended by Appellant to facilitate that fraudulent scheme; and (2) because Appellant failed to produce a privilege log as required under the Federal Rules, Appellant’s request for in camera review was not preserved. View "In re Grand Jury Proceedings" on Justia Law

The Soto family - Carmen and Pedro and their son, Steven - operated a real estate business in Massachusetts that they used to orchestrate several fraudulent real estate transactions. The Sotos were each convicted of multiple counts of mail fraud based on these fraudulent transactions. Steven and Pedro were also convicted of multiple counts of aggravated identity theft. The First Circuit affirmed the convictions and sentences, holding (1) the district court did not err in denying Defendants’ motion to suppress evidence from a laptop and from the Soto family residence; (2) Steven was not subject to double jeopardy; (3) there was no plain error in admitting testimony of a certain witness; (4) the district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding a report from the Government Accountability Office; (5) there was sufficient evidence to sustain the convictions; (6) the Sotos waived any challenge to the good faith/condonation instruction, and the reasonable doubt instruction was not erroneous; and (7) the district court did not abuse its discretion in ordering Carmen to pay $792,559 in restitution. View "United States v. Soto" on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of securities fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy to conceal assets and make fraudulent transfers, concealment of assets, fraudulent transfer, uttering coins, and money laundering. The offenses arose from Defendant’s fraudulent schemes used to cheat numerous victims out of more than a million dollars and to manipulate the U.S. Bankruptcy Code to shield his ill-gotten gains from creditors. The First Circuit affirmed Defendant’s conviction and sentence, holding (1) there was sufficient evidence to support the jury’s guilty verdict; and (2) the district court properly calculated the applicable Sentencing Guidelines range and imposed a procedurally and substantively reasonable sentence. View "United States v. Pacheco-Martinez" on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Defendants, James Prange and John Jordan, were convicted of multiple fraud-related counts based on their participation in an FBI securities fraud sting. The district court sentenced both Defendants to concurrent terms of thirty months’ imprisonment for each count of conviction. The First Circuit affirmed Defendants’ convictions but remanded for resentencing, holding (1) the district court did not err when it permitted an undercover agent to interpret what he and Jordan meant by certain statements in their recorded face-to-face conversation; (2) Defendants failed to establish that the government entrapped them as a matter of law; (3) the district court did not abuse its discretion in submitted a superseding indictment to the jury; but (4) the district court procedurally erred when formulating Defendants’ guideline sentencing ranges. View "United States v. Prange" on Justia Law

After a seventeen-day jury trial, Appellants, a brother and sister, were found guilty of multiple bankruptcy-related crimes designed to conceal the brother’s assets and avoid his obligations to creditors. Appellants appealed, challenging both their convictions and sentences. The First Circuit affirmed Appellants’ convictions and sentences, holding (1) the evidence was sufficient to support Appellants’ convictions on all counts; (2) the district court did not err in imposing a sixteen-level increase to Appellants’ base offense levels under the sentencing guidelines; (3) the brother’s settlement of the adversary proceeding in his bankruptcy case did not provide a basis for a judgment of acquittal on the criminal charges subsequently filed against him; and (4) the district court did not err in allowing the jury to hear evidence relating to the sister’s bankruptcy proceedings in 2000. View "United States v. Colon-Ledee" on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Appellant, who provided tax preparation and filing services, was convicted of ten counts of submitting fraudulent federal tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The First Circuit affirmed, holding that the district court did not err by (1) finding that an instruction preventing the jury from considering a co-worker’s criminal conduct as propensity evidence under Fed. R. Evid. 404(b) was harmless error; (2) declining to strike the summary testimony of a certain IRS agent; and (3) refusing to grant Appellant’s motion for acquittal on Count Eight, which involved a tax return filed on behalf of George Melo, pursuant to Fed. R. Crim. P. 29. View "United States v. Ulloa" on Justia Law

George Schussel’s former company fraudulently transferred millions of dollars to him in order to avoid paying income taxes. The IRS, which is authorized by statute to collect a person’s tax debt by reclaiming assets the debtor has transferred to someone else, claimed that Schussel was liable as a transferee for the company’s tax deficiencies. The United States Tax Court held Schussel liable for the company’s back taxes of over $4.9 million plus interest of at least $8.7 million. Schussel appealed, disputing the amount he owed the IRS as a result of the fraudulent transfers. The First Circuit reversed in part and affirmed in part, holding (1) the tax court erred in calculating prejudgment interest on the fraudulently transferred funds under the federal tax interest statute rather than assessing the prejudgment interest at the Massachusetts rate; (2) the tax court did not err in accepting as a proper measure of the assets Schussel received the actual amount transferred from the company into Schussel-controlled accounts; and (3) Schussel’s loans to the company to pay Schussel’s litigation expenses did not reduce the net amount transferred to him. View "Schussel v. Werfel" on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Defendants, Catherine Floyd and William Dion, were convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States of payroll and income taxes and endeavoring to obstruct and impede the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The First Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, holding (1) there was sufficient evidence to support the convictions; (2) the district court did not err in failing to suppress certain evidence; (3) the district court did not err in denying Defendants’ motions for severance and in trying Defendants jointly with their coconspirator; (4) Defendants’ claim that the IRS’s failure to comply with the Federal Register Act engendered dismissal of some of the charges was without merit; and (5) the district court did not err in sentencing Dion. View "United States v. Dion" on Justia Law