Source: http://openjurist.org/291/f3d/756/united-states-v-singh
Timestamp: 2013-12-10 19:08:44
Document Index: 226241767

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2', '§ 371', '§ 408', '§ 371', '§ 1343', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 3']

291 F3d 756 United States v. Singh | OpenJurist
291 F. 3d 756 - United States v. Singh	Home291 f3d 756 united states v. singh
291 F3d 756 United States v. Singh 291 F.3d 756
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,v.Ram Kumar SINGH, a.k.a. Ashivil Kumar, a.k.a. Mohan Kumar, a.k.a. Lawrence Birch, a.k.a. Kenneth Bryant, a.k.a. Edwin Cintron, a.k.a. Caleb Deitch, Defendant-Appellant.United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,v.Rajiv R. Singh, a.k.a. Dev Anand, a.k.a Alan Matthew, a.k.a. Henry Mehta, a.k.a. Jarad D. Mortin, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 01-11399.
Christopher Knight, Kristen Gartman Rogers, Fed. Pub. Def., Federal Defenders Organization, Inc., Mobile, AL, for Defendants-Appellants.
Posit: In order for a defendant to receive a two-level enhancement pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2F1.1(b)(6)(B), must the defendant personally commit a substantial part of the fraudulent scheme from outside of the United States?
We think not, and therefore, affirm Defendant's sentence.
From July 1998 to May 2000, Ram Kumar Singh (a/k/a Rajiv Singh), along with his co-conspirators in Kuwait, engaged in a "call sell" scheme to defraud AT&T, Bell South, and other long distance and local telephone service providers.
Generally, the scheme worked like this: Singh would obtain rental space at various locations in Alabama and Louisiana (and other states) and, then, would establish local and long distance telephone service at those locations using false personal and business identities and fraudulent social security numbers. Meanwhile, Singh's Kuwaiti contacts would set up telephone banks in Kuwait to receive the telephone calls coming from Singh's telephone lines.
Once telephone service had been established, long distance telephone calls were placed to both domestic and Middle Eastern countries from Singh's telephone lines. Specifically, Singh would call Kuwait and then would connect that party who was using one of Singh's co-conspirator's telephone banks to a receiving party in a different country using the three-way calling system on Singh's telephone lines.1 Singh's co-conspirators would collect a fee from their Kuwaiti customers and would wire a portion of that money to Singh. When the telephone bills came due, Singh would not pay them and would move on to a new location. Singh's telephone bills in Alabama totaled $126,172.00 and in Louisiana totaled $68,784.05.
On June 30, 2000, a federal grand jury sitting in the Southern District of Alabama returned an Indictment against Singh charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and with fourteen counts of fraudulently using a social security number in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 408(a)(7)(B) in connection with his call sell scheme. On August 17, 2000, a federal grand jury sitting in the Middle District of Louisiana returned an Indictment against Singh charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and with seven counts of wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1343 and 2 in connection with his call sell scheme.
Thereafter, the Louisiana Indictment was transferred to the Southern District of Alabama pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 20, and Singh pleaded guilty to the two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud charged in the two Indictments.2 After a sentencing hearing which spanned two days and at which Singh testified twice, the district court sentenced Singh to 33 months of imprisonment on each of his two counts of conviction and imposed restitution in the amount of $194,966.05. The district court ordered that Singh's two 33 month sentences of imprisonment be served concurrently.
On appeal, Singh challenges his 33 month sentence on three grounds.
First, Singh argues that the district court erred in awarding him a two level enhancement in his adjusted offense level, pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2F1.1(b)(6)(B) (2000), based upon a finding that a substantial part of the fraudulent scheme was committed from outside the United States. Singh asserts that the plain language of that Sentencing Guideline provision indicates that the enhancement is only justified if a substantial part of the fraudulent scheme originated from outside of the United States. Singh contends that a substantial part of his call sell scheme did not originate from outside of the United States because every fraudulent telephone call originated from the United States, because the fraudulent telephone service accounts were established in the United States, and because the three-way calling connection was made by an operator within the United States.
Furthermore, Singh claims that it is clear that the United States Sentencing Commission did not intend U.S.S.G. § 2F1.1(b)(6)(B) to apply in this case because there was no foreign connection which was established in order to conceal the crime, which made the discovery of the crime more difficult, or which was established in order to avoid the application of United States law. Finally, Singh asserts that, in order for the enhancement to apply, the defendant must personally commit part of the scheme from outside of the United States. Because he did not take any action outside of the United States in furtherance of the call sell scheme, Singh argues that the district court erred in enhancing his adjusted offense level pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2F1.1(b)(6)(B).
Second, Singh asserts that the district court erred in enhancing his adjusted offense level by two-levels, pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1, for obstructing justice because, contrary to the district court's finding, he did not deny the existence of a foreign connection or deny that at least some of the telephone calls were being made through Kuwait. Rather, Singh maintains that he simply denied having personally made the telephone calls to Kuwait and that the Government's evidence failed to prove otherwise.3 Moreover, Singh asserts that, to the extent that the district court found otherwise, it did so because it misunderstood Singh's t