Case ID: f-appx_669/html/0976-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM:", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Herschell HARVELL, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.
    No. 15-14660 Non-Argument Calendar
    United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.
    Date Filed: 10/21/2016
    Douglas W. Gilfillan, David M. Chaiken, John Andrew Horn, Lawrence R. Sommer-feld, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Atlanta, GA, for Plaintiff-Appellee
    Amy Levin Weil, The Weil Firm, Atlanta, GA, for Defendant-Appellant
    Before WILSON, WILLIAM PRYOR and ROSENBAUM, Circuit Judges.
   PER CURIAM:

Herschell Harvell Jr. appeals his sentence of imprisonment for 32 months for two convictions of making false statements to a'financial institution, 18 U.S.C. § 1014. The district court increased Harvell’s offense level by two points for his use of a special skill in committing the offenses, U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3. Harvell argues that his previous employment with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of the Inspector General, did not give him a special skill. We affirm.

We review for clear error the finding that Harvell used a special skill. United States v. De La Cruz Suarez, 601 F.3d 1202, 1219 (11th Cir. 2010).

The district court did not clearly err in enhancing Harvell’s base offensé level for his use of a special skill in fraud investigations to help him commit the offenses of conviction. The average person would lack intimate knowledge of loan and real estate procedures. United States v. Calderon, 127 F.3d 1314, 1339 (11th Cir. 1997). But Har-vell worked for the Housing Department for 15 years, which made his training “substantial.” U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3, cmt. n.4. He knew, various “tricks of the trade” regarding mortgage fraud. Calderon, 127 F.3d at 1339. And he used that special skill “in a manner that significantly facilitated the commission or concealment of the offense.” U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3. He concealed or misrepresented assets, income, living expenses, and business ownership. And the district court was entitled to find that he did so in a way that only a seasoned fraud investigator, would know how to do. We affirm.

AFFIRMED.