Criminal Law

Dist. Ct. did not err in sentencing defendant to 57-month term of incarceration on bank fraud charge that involved check-kiting scheme in which defendant and others recruited others to open checking accounts in names of fictitious businesses and then withdrawing funds before banks could discover that checks were worthless. Dist. Ct. could properly impose 14-level enhancement, after finding that defendant could reasonably have foreseen entire intended loss to banks of $653,417, as opposed to $196,400 in loss that directly resulted in her participation of scheme, where record showed that defendant, who had relationship with leader of scheme, was aware that she played role in larger scheme, and that others were also recruiting individuals to defraud banks. Dist. Ct. could also impose 2-level enhancement based on finding that scheme involved sophisticated means, where defendant and others were able to successfully deceive numerous bankers, who had good deal of skill in detecting variety of complex counterfeit documents used in instant scheme. Moreover, Dist. Ct. could reject defendant’s argument that she was entitled to lower sentence based on fact that she was single parent of two children.

Dist. Ct. did not err in sentencing defendant to 66-month term of incarceration on mail fraud charge based in part on finding that three victims incurred more than $1million in losses arising out of said fraud. While defendant disputed amount of net money said victims had invested in instant Ponzi scheme set up by defendant, Dist. Ct. could rely on receipts and testimony of one witness to support its loss calculation in instant scheme. Moreover, while defendant contended that said evidence was unreliable, defendant failed to show that Dist. Ct.’s loss calculation was clearly “outside realm of permissible computation.”