Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca8-07-01513/USCOURTS-ca8-07-01513-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Kennedy Igbokwe
Appellant
United States
Appellee

Document Text:

1

The Honorable John A. Jarvey, United States District Judge for the Southern

District of Iowa, sitting by designation.

2

The Honorable Gary A. Fenner, United States District Judge for the Western

District of Missouri, presiding.

 United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

___________

No. 07-1513

___________

United States of America, *

*

Plaintiff - Appellee, *

*

v. * Appeal from the United States

* District Court for the Western

* District of Missouri. 

Kennedy Igbokwe, *

*

Defendant - Appellant. * 

___________

Submitted: January 16, 2008

 Filed: March 3, 2008

___________

Before LOKEN, Chief Judge, MURPHY, Circuit Judge, and JARVEY,1

 District

Judge.

___________

MURPHY, Circuit Judge.

Kennedy Igbokwe was convicted in the district court2

 of one count of health

care fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1347, nineteen counts of currency structuring

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in violation of 31 U.S.C. § 5324, and four counts of money laundering in violation of

18 U.S.C. § 1957. He was sentenced to a prison term of 63 months. Igbokwe appeals,

attacking his convictions for health care fraud and money laundering on the basis of

insufficient evidence and his sentence on the basis that the district court erred in

calculating the loss for his health care fraud conviction. We affirm. 

Igbokwe solely owned, controlled, and operated Cardinal Healthcare, Inc., a

durable medical equipment supply company, through which he defrauded Medicare

by billing it for expensive power wheelchairs while providing substantially cheaper

motorized scooters to beneficiaries. The evidence established that such "upcoding"

occurred in 129 separate instances, causing Medicare to lose $2,200 on each

wheelchair and a total of $283,800. With the help of two physician codefendants,

Igbokwe also submitted fraudulent certificates of medical necessity to Medicare for

individuals who often did not qualify for any type of wheelchair or scooter. Igbokwe's

codefendants admitted in their guilty pleas that at least half of the 423 claims

submitted by Cardinal Healthcare, which totaled more than $2.5 million, were based

on fraudulent certificates of medical necessity, producing an intended loss of more

than $1.25 million. Since Medicare paid Cardinal Healthcare over $1.5 million for

power wheelchair claims, the district court consequently imposed a restitution order

of $750,000 for actual loss. The funds received from Medicare were deposited into

Cardinal Healthcare bank accounts under Igbokwe’s exclusive control, from which

he initiated wire transfers with amounts exceeding $10,000 on four occasions; these

wire transfers were the basis for his money laundering convictions. Igbokwe also

engaged in currency structuring by withdrawing cash amounts of less than $10,000

nineteen times in an attempt to circumvent currency transaction reporting

requirements. 

Igbokwe argues on appeal that his convictions for health care fraud and money

laundering were not supported by sufficient evidence. We review de novo whether

the evidence was sufficient to justify Igbokwe's convictions and draw all reasonable

inferences in the light most favorable to the verdict. See United States v. Spears, 454

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F.3d 830, 832 (8th Cir. 2006). To prove the health care fraud charges, the government

produced evidence showing that Medicare reimbursed Cardinal Healthcare for the

expensive power wheelchairs even though the beneficiaries only received scooters.

Witness testimony described fraudulent efforts by Igbokwe such as "recruiting"

beneficiaries and established that significant funds deposited into Cardinal

Healthcare's checking account were withdrawn as untraceable cash. Evidence in

support of his money laundering conviction showed that Igbokwe knowingly made

wire transfers of more than $10,000, based on funds Cardinal Healthcare had

fraudulently received from Medicare for power wheelchairs. In light of all the

evidence, it was not unreasonable for the jury to find Igbokwe guilty of health care

fraud and money laundering. See United States v. Jara, 474 F.3d 1018, 1021 (8th Cir.

2007) (verdict may only be reversed on appeal if no reasonable jury could have found

the accused guilty). 

Igbokwe also submits that the district court incorrectly calculated the loss for

the health care fraud conviction. We apply de novo review to the district court's

application of the federal sentencing guidelines. United States v. Mashek, 406 F.3d

1012, 1016 (8th Cir. 2005). The district court adopted the presentencing report and

grouped the health care fraud, money laundering, and currency structuring convictions

under U.S.S.G. § 3D1.2(d). The currency structuring convictions were assigned

offense level 24, exceeding the offense levels for the other counts, which became

irrelevant for sentencing calculation purposes under the grouping rules. See United

States v. Mooney, 425 F.3d 1093, 1097-98 (8th Cir. 2005) (en banc) (count producing

highest offense level establishes offense level for group); see also U.S.S.G. § 3D1.3.

With his criminal history category I, Igbokwe's resulting guideline range for offense

level 24 was 51-63 months. His sentence of 63 months was within that range. 

Igbokwe's argument that the district court erred in arriving at the loss amount

on the health care fraud conviction is unavailing. Because his sentence was based on

Igbokwe's currency structuring conviction under the guideline grouping rules rather

than on his health care fraud conviction, any error in calculating the loss for the health

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care fraud conviction would have been harmless. See United States v. Watkins, 486

F.3d 458, 470 (8th Cir. 2007), vacated on other grounds by --- S.Ct.---, 2008 WL

59282 (allegedly erroneous sentencing computation that has no effect on defendant's

sentence is moot). 

Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the district court. 

_________________________

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