U.S. v. Sheith

In proceeding seeking to apply defendant’s assets to $12,376,310 restitution order, Dist. Ct. erred in granting govt. request to have third-parties turn over $300,738 in defendant's additional assets to what govt. had previously acquired, but not yet distributed to defendant’s victims in his underlying healthcare fraud conviction. Defendant objected to govt. turnover request on grounds that defendant’s existing assets that had previously been turned over to govt. were sufficient to satisfy restitution order, and Dist. Ct. failed to allow parties to conduct discovery and to hold evidentiary hearing on issue prior to granting govt.’s request. Ct. rejected govt. argument that any excess money collected from defendant’s assets over restitution amount could be applied to defendant’s $20 million civil judgment and further found that govt. could not use Mandatory Victims Restitution Act in instant proceeding to collect on $20 million civil judgment.