NOT PRECEDENTIAL
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

___________ No. 1 4

- 4416

___________ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

v. SA’EEDU MASSAQUOI,

Appellant

____________________________________ On Appeal from the United States Distri ct Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ( E. D. Pa. No. 2

- 99

- c r
- 00 644

- 002 ) District Judge: Honorable Petrese B. Tucker

____________________________________ Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a)

December 7, 2015 Before: JORDAN, B ARRY and VAN ANTWERPEN , Circuit Judges

( F iled : December 7, 2015 )

___________ OPINION *

___________ PER CURIAM Sa’eedu Massaquoi , a federal prisoner proceeding pro se , appeals an order of the

* This disposition is not an opinion of the full C ourt and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not constitute binding precedent.2

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania d enying his motion to amend his criminal judgment pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 36. For the reasons that follow, w e will affirm

. On May 11, 2000, Massaquoi was convicted after a jury trial in federal court of
armed bank robber y, carjackin g, and related offenses

. In the superseding indictment, the
Government included a notice of forfeiture assert ing that Massaquoi and his co

- defendant
shall forfeit to the United States certain property obtained as a result of their crimes

. After Massaquoi was convicted, t he Government moved for a forfeiture verdict and a preliminary order of forfeiture. On September 21, 2000, the District Court sentenced Massaquoi to a total of 646 months in prison and issued a forfeiture verdict and preliminary order o f forfeiture. The
forfeiture order required the Government to give notice to third parties known to have an interest in the forfeited properties and to publish notice of the order as set forth by statute.
After notice wa s published and no third party ass erted an interest in the property, on February 15, 2001, the Government moved for the entry of a judgment and final order of
forfeiture. On February 21, 2001, t he District Court entered a judgment and final order of
forfeiture vesting all rights in the pr operty in the United States. On direct appeal, w e affirmed the judgment , but remanded for the dismissal of two convictions that were duplicative of other greater offenses. United States v. Hall , 44 F. App’x 532, 536

- 37 (3d Cir. 2002) (per curiam) (non

- precedential). On remand, these
counts of the indictment were dismissed and the sentences vacated. In 2003, Massaquoi3

filed a motion to vacate sentence pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 . The District Court
denied relief and we denied Massaquoi’s request for a certificate of appealability

. Massaquoi has since filed numerous motions for relief from the judgment, all without

success. In 2014, Massaquoi filed a motion pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 36 to amend his criminal judgment to include the final forfeiture order. Massaquoi stated that the forfeited property is not listed in the judgment. The District Court denied the
motion as moot and noted that an order directing forfeiture of Massaquoi’s property was
issued on February 21, 2001. T his appeal followed. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We have not decided the
standard of review applicable to the denial of a Rule 36 motion. Other courts of appeals have applied different standards. See , e.g. , United States v. Dick ie , 752 F.2d 1398, 1400 (9th Cir. 1985) (per curiam) (applying a clear error standard) ; United States v. Niemiec , 689 F.2d 688, 692 (7th Cir. 1982) (applying an abuse of discretion standard). We will

not resolve this question here because we would affirm under either standard. Massaquoi relies on United States v. Bennett , 423 F.3d 271, 275

- 76 (3d Cir. 2005), in his motion to amend his criminal judgment. In Bennett , a preliminary order of forfeiture was entered following a criminal conviction

. The de fendant was sentenced and
thereafter the district court granted the government ’s mo tion for a final for feiture order

. Several years later, the defendant filed a motion for a return of property. The government4

then moved to amend the judgment of sentence, which did not include a forfeiture provision, to include the forfeiture order.
We affirmed the district court’s grant of the government’s motion and the amendment of the criminal judgment under Rule 36 , which allows a court to correct a
clerical error in a judgment at any time. Bennett , 423 F.3d at 282. We explained that, except in cases involv ing ancillary proceedings adjudicating the rights of third parties, a final order of forfeiture must be made part of the sentence and included in the judgment.
Id. at 275

- 76

. W e concluded that the omission of the forfeiture in the final sentence was
tantamount to a clerical error where the defendant had stipulated to the forfeiture and the

court ’s intent was embodied in an uncontested preliminary order of forfe iture

. Id. at 282.
I n 2009, Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32.2 w as amended to provide that a failure

to include a forfeiture order in a judgment may be corrected at any time under Rule 36. Fed. R. Crim. P. 32.2(b)(4)(B).
Even if Massaquoi’s crimina l judgment should have include d the forfeiture order , Massaquoi has not shown that the District Court should have granted his motion to

a mend . More than fifteen years have passed since Massaquoi’s criminal judgment was
entered

. In Bennett , the government app arently sought to amend the judgment because the defendant had moved for a return of property. Here, t he Government sta tes that the forfeiture occurred long ago and that Massaquoi has never sought review of the final
forfeiture order

. Massaquoi does not explain why an amendment is needed now. Cf.5

United States v. Frady , 456 U.S. 152, 175 (1982) (recognizing societal interest in the finality of criminal judgments). Accordingly, we will affirm the judgment of the District Court.