U.S. v. Thomas

Record contained sufficient evidence to support jury’s guilty verdict on charge of wire fraud stemming from scheme in which defendant and others concocted multiple false sales of homes in order to obtain loan proceeds that defendant used to pay off prior loans and to retain certain proceeds for personal use. While defendant argued that he was entitled to acquittal since no one specifically identified him during trial as culprit, record contained sufficient circumstantial evidence of defendant’s identification where: (1) defendant’s son-in-law identified defendant’s signature on letter to one targeted victim and never suggested that individual on trial was not his father-in-law; (2) defendant’s failure to cross-examine son-in-law on identity issue allowed jury to infer that correct individual was on trial. Moreover, defendant’s trial strategy was inconsistent with identity-based defense.