U.S. v. Griffin

Record contained sufficient evidence to support jury’s guilty verdict on conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting financial institution and wire fraud affecting financial institution charges, arising out of scheme to obtain Small Business Administration (SBA) loan guarantees through use of false statements in support of applications for loans that did not meet SBA guidelines. Ct. rejected defendants’ contention that indictment was constructively amended when focus of trial was on defendants’ actions in defrauding SBA, instead of any financial institution, since conspiracy to commit fraud on financial institution can consist of defrauding SBA. Moreover, record showed that conspiracy to defraud SBA resulted in increased risk of loss to financial institutions, where said institutions would bear loss if SBA discovered that loans were ineligible for guarantees. Ct. also rejected defendants’ argument that record failed to support wire fraud convictions, because none of their fraudulent statements pertained to credit-worthiness or repayment ability of borrowers. Also, record contained evidence showing that two or more individuals were aware of scheme to defraud SBA and took steps to hide true nature of purpose of loans proceeds, which were for reasons outside SBA guidelines, such as payment of overdue payroll taxes and payment of another agency’s fine. Too, Dist. Ct. did not err in calculating loss attributable to instant scheme, when it included all loans that would have been ineligible for any SBA guarantees without defendants’ fraudulent misrepresentations. Also, Dist. Ct. did not abuse its discretion in imposing restitution order, after finding existence of proximate cause between defendants’ conduct and SBA losses without consideration of SBA’s ability to recoup losses from lenders.