1 The Honorable John A. Jarvey, United Stat es District Judge for the Southern District of Iowa, sitting by designation.

2 The Honorable Gary A. Fenner, United St ates 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 court 2 of one count of health care fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1347, nineteen counts of currency structuring-2- in violation of 31 U.S.C. § 5324, and four counts of money launde ring 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 car e fraud and money launde ring 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 Cardi nal Healthcare, Inc., a durable medical equipment supply compa ny, through which he defrauded Medicare by billing it for expensive power wheelchairs while providing substantially cheaper motorized scooters to beneficiaries. Th e 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 phys ician codefendants, Igbokwe also submitted fraudulent certificates of medical necessity to Medicare for individuals who often did not qualify for any type of wheel chair 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 nece ssity, 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 r eceived from Medicare were deposited into Cardinal Healthcare bank accounts under Igbokw e’s exclusive control, from which he initiated wire transfers with amount s exceeding $10,000 on four occasions; these wire transfers were the basis for his money laundering convictions. Igbokwe also engaged in currency structuring by with drawing cash amounts of less than $10,000 nineteen times in an attempt to circumvent currency transaction reporting requirements.

Igbokwe argues on appeal that his convic tions for health care fraud and money laundering were not supported by sufficient ev idence. We review de novo whether the evidence was sufficient to justify Igbokw e's convictions and draw all reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the verdict. See United States v. Spears , 454-3- F.3d 830, 832 (8th Cir. 2006). To prove th e health care fraud charges, the government produced evidence showing that Medicar e reimbursed Cardinal Healthcare for the expensive power wheelchairs even though th e beneficiaries only received scooters. Witness testimony described fraudulent e fforts by Igbokwe such as "recruiting" beneficiaries and established that si gnificant funds deposited into Cardinal Healthcare's checking account were withdr awn as untraceable cash. Evidence in support of his money laundering convicti on 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 ju ry 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 app eal 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 convicti on. 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 c ourt adopted the presentencing report and grouped the health care fraud, money launderi ng, and currency structuring convictions under U.S.S.G. § 3D1.2(d). The currency structuring convictions were assigned offense level 24, exceeding the offense le vels 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, I gbokwe'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 c ourt erred in arriving at the loss amount on the health care fraud convi ction is unavailing. Because his sentence was based on Igbokwe's currency structuring convicti on under the guideline grouping rules rather than on his health care fraud conviction, any error in calculating the loss for the health-4- care fraud conviction would ha ve 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 sent encing computation that has no effect on defendant's sentence is moot).

Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

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