U.S. v. Walsh

Dist. Ct. did not err in sentencing defendant to 150-month term of incarceration on charges of wire fraud, tax evasion and violation of Commodities Exchange Act arising out of Ponzi-scheme in which defendant used clients’ margin fund accounts to pay for his personal expenses. While defendant challenged Dist. Ct.’s finding that actual loss arising out of scheme was between $7 million and under $20 million, defendant admitted during colloquy plea that he misappropriated over $10 million in client funds, and analyst gave opinion that additional losses came from other customers. Ct. rejected defendant’s claim that clients’ margin balances were inappropriate measures of loss, even though defendant argued that other innocent factors such as agency shut-down of defendant’s business could have played role in said loss.