Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/332/753/550447/
Timestamp: 2020-08-13 03:50:28
Document Index: 750437469

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1014', '§ 1014', '§ 1014', '§ 1014', '§ 1014', '§ 1014', '§ 3', '§ 1014', '§ 1014', '§ 1014', '§ 1014', '§ 1014', '§ 1014', '§ 1344', '§ 1344', '§ 1344', '§ 1014', '§ 1344', '§ 1014', '§ 1344', '§ 1014', '§ 1014', '§ 1344', '§ 1014', '§ 1014', '§ 1014', '§ 1014', '§ 1014', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 5', '§ 1344', '§ 1']

Patricia Furlong Elliott, Defendant-appellant, v. United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee.united States of America, Plaintiff-appellant, v. Patricia Furlong Elliott, Defendant-appellee, 332 F.3d 753 (4th Cir. 2003) :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Fourth Circuit › 2003 › Patricia Furlong Elliott, Defendant-appellant, v. United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee.unite...
Patricia Furlong Elliott, Defendant-appellant, v. United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee.united States of America, Plaintiff-appellant, v. Patricia Furlong Elliott, Defendant-appellee, 332 F.3d 753 (4th Cir. 2003)
US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit - 332 F.3d 753 (4th Cir. 2003) Argued: April 4, 2003
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED ARGUED: John Henry Herbig, Parker, Pollard & Brown, P.C., Richmond, Virginia, for Appellant. Thomas Andrew Hanusik, Trial Attorney, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Stephen E. Scarce, Parker, Pollard & Brown, P.C., Richmond, Virginia, for Appellant. Paul J. McNulty, United States Attorney, Sara E. Flannery, Assistant United States Attorney, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellee.
On November 8, 2001, a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia returned a thirty-eight count indictment against Elliott. The indictment alleged twenty-four counts of mail fraud; one count of wire fraud; and, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1014, thirteen counts of making false statements to a financial institution.1 Elliott moved to dismiss the indictment, asserting that the charges were legally insufficient. On March 12, 2002, the district court dismissed the mail fraud charges, but it authorized the remaining fourteen counts to proceed. United States v. Elliott, Mem. Op., CR-01-327 (E.D. Va. Mar. 12, 2002) (the "Dismissal Opinion").2 Subsequently, the Government dismissed the single count of wire fraud.3 On April 8, 2002, following a one-day bench trial conducted on April 4, 2002, Elliott was convicted on twelve of the thirteen false statement counts (Counts 26-30 and 32-38); she was acquitted on the remaining false statement count (Count 31). See United States v. Elliott, Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, CR-01-327 (E.D. Va. Apr. 8, 2002) (the "Opinion").4 The facts underlying Elliott's convictions, as found by the district court in its Opinion, are reviewed below.
On April 4, 2002, Elliott's bench trial was conducted in the Eastern District of Virginia. At trial, the district court denied Elliott's motion for judgment of acquittal. Following the trial, the court convicted Elliott on twelve of the thirteen § 1014 counts (the "False Statement Convictions"). A person violates § 1014 by "knowingly mak [ing] any false statement... for the purpose of influencing in any way the action of ... any [FDIC-insured financial institution], ... upon any application, advance, discount, purchase, ... commitment, or loan." 18 U.S.C. § 1014. The court concluded that, in order to obtain a conviction under § 1014, the Government was obliged to prove three essential elements: (1) that Elliott made a false statement; (2) that Elliott made that statement to influence a bank's action; and (3) that Elliott made the statement knowingly. Opinion at 12.
At the conclusion of the sentencing hearing, the court adopted the PSR. It overruled Elliott's objections on the fraud loss calculation, the restitution award, and the denial of the Responsibility Adjustment. Elliott's base offense level was determined to be sixteen, authorizing a sentence of twenty-one to twenty-seven months imprisonment. PSR at 27. Over the Government's objection, the court granted Elliott a four-level downward departure due to her family responsibilities. The court then sentenced her to five months imprisonment, to be followed by a five-year term of supervised release. United States v. Elliott, Judgment in a Criminal Case, CR-01-327 (E.D. Va. Sept. 6, 2002). On September 12, 2002, Elliott moved the court for reconsideration of the fraud loss calculation. The court denied that motion on October 9, 2002.
We review de novo a district court's interpretation of the essential elements of 18 U.S.C. § 1014. See United States v. Wills, 234 F.3d 174, 176 (4th Cir. 2000) ("We review the interpretation of a statute de novo."). In assessing the sufficiency of the evidence presented in a bench trial, we must uphold a guilty verdict if, taking the view most favorable to the Government, there is substantial evidence to support the verdict. United States v. Ismail, 97 F.3d 50, 55 (4th Cir. 1996) (quoting Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80, 62 S. Ct. 457, 86 L. Ed. 680 (1942)).
In considering challenges to a sentencing court's application of the Guidelines, we review factual determinations for clear error and legal issues de novo. United States v. Singh, 54 F.3d 1182, 1190 (4th Cir. 1995). The determination of whether a defendant is entitled to the Responsibility Adjustment "is clearly a factual issue and thus reviewable under a clearly erroneous standard." United States v. White, 875 F.2d 427, 431 (4th Cir. 1989). We are mindful that" [t]he sentencing judge is in a unique position to evaluate a defendant's acceptance of responsibility," and thus that "the determination of the sentencing judge is entitled to great deference on review." U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1, cmt. n. 5.
A sentencing court's interpretation of the term "loss" under the Guidelines is a legal issue, and hence is reviewed de novo. United States v. Miller, 316 F.3d 495, 498 (4th Cir. 2003). The propriety of the court's calculation of loss, however, is a question of fact, which we review for clear error. United States v. Godwin, 272 F.3d 659, 671 (4th Cir. 2001).
Finally, we review for abuse of discretion a sentencing court's decision to depart downward from the applicable Guideline range. Koon v. United States, 518 U.S. 81, 91, 116 S. Ct. 2035, 135 L. Ed. 2d 392 (1996); United States v. Rybicki, 96 F.3d 754, 756-57 (4th Cir. 1996). Under Koon, a court's decision to depart is generally entitled to "substantial deference, for it embodies the traditional exercise of discretion by a sentencing court." 518 U.S. at 98, 116 S. Ct. 2035.
In support of her contention, Elliott relies almost exclusively on the Supreme Court's decision in Williams v. United States, 458 U.S. 279, 102 S. Ct. 3088, 73 L. Ed. 2d 767 (1982). There, defendant Williams had engaged in a "check kiting" scheme, knowingly writing checks against an account that contained insufficient funds.10 The Williams Court determined that "a check is not a factual assertion at all, and therefore cannot be characterized as `true' or `false.'" Id. at 284, 102 S. Ct. 3088. A check, the Court observed, does not "make any representation as to the state of [the drawer's] bank balance," but instead simply "contains an unconditional promise or order to pay a sum certain in money." Id. at 284-85, 102 S. Ct. 3088 (internal quotation marks omitted). The Court therefore reversed Williams's § 1014 convictions, concluding that the statute was not "intended to put the Federal Government in the business of policing the deposit of bad checks." Id. at 290, 102 S. Ct. 3088 (internal quotation marks omitted).
There is a fundamental difference, however, between checks drawn on an account containing insufficient funds, on the one hand, and affirmative misrepresentations made on the check itself, on the other. As the Fifth Circuit has concluded, "Williams does not govern a situation in which some information on the check, such as a false signature, or a fictitious bank, is itself a false statement." United States v. Hord, 6 F.3d 276, 285 (5th Cir. 1993) (internal quotation marks omitted). In the Fifth Circuit case, Hord had bought blank checks and a machine that encoded routing numbers, and he had used them to print bogus checks. The Fifth Circuit upheld Hord's § 1014 convictions, concluding that the holding of Williams is applicable only to "the simple presentation of a check drawn on an account with insufficient funds." Id. at 286, 102 S. Ct. 3088 (internal quotation marks omitted).
The Fifth Circuit is not alone in its interpretation and application of Williams. In fact, our Court has observed that "there is nothing in Williams that equates the passing of checks drawn on accounts with insufficient funds with fraudulently making or altering a document." United States v. Price, 763 F.2d 640, 643 (4th Cir. 1985); see also United States v. Falcone, 934 F.2d 1528, 1541 (11th Cir.), reh'g granted & opinion vacated, 939 F.2d 1455 (11th Cir.), opinion reinstated on reh'g, 960 F.2d 988 (11th Cir. 1991) ("Most courts, including our own, ... have declined to read Williams broadly to require the reversal of convictions in situations other than those involving insufficient-funds checks."); United States v. Worthington, 822 F.2d 315, 316 (2d Cir. 1987) (concluding that printing name of nonexistent drawee bank on check "fits squarely within the dictionary definition of `false statement'"). In our Price decision, the defendant had been convicted under § 1014 for depositing false credit card sales receipts into an FDIC-insured financial institution. We upheld Price's convictions, concluding that, "unlike the checks in Williams which carried with them no representation, express or otherwise, as to the drawer's account balance, the credit card sales receipts ... carried with them express false representations concerning the credit card account numbers, the account owners, and the amounts of purchase." Price, 763 F.2d at 643.
Elliott next challenges her False Statement Convictions on the basis that, even if the forged endorsements constituted false statements, her presentation of the Forged Checks did not satisfy the second element of § 1014, i.e., the checks were not deposited for the purpose of influencing Southside's actions "upon any... advance." In making this contention, Elliott again relies on the Williams decision. There, the Court observed that nothing in the legislative history of § 1014 "suggested that the statute should be applicable to anything other than representations made in connection with conventional loan or related transactions." Williams, 458 U.S. at 288-89, 102 S. Ct. 3088. Elliott maintains that her receipt of "immediate credit for the deposit" of the Forged Checks was not a conventional loan or related transaction, and that her convictions must therefore be reversed.
Elliott next maintains that, under § 1014, the Government is required to prove that the financial institution suffered a risk of financial loss. Elliott premises her argument on the requirement that, in order to prove bank fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1344, the Government must show that a financial institution was at risk of financial loss.11 See United States v. Brandon, 298 F.3d 307, 312 (4th Cir. 2002) (observing that, pursuant to § 1344, "it is sufficient for the government to show that a financial institution was exposed to an actual or potential risk of loss" (internal quotation marks omitted)). She contends that we should read this § 1344 element into § 1014, and she maintains that, in this instance, Southside was never at risk of any such loss.
Risk of loss is not an express statutory requirement for conviction under either § 1344 or § 1014. But because we have held that risk of financial loss must be proven under § 1344, Elliott contends it would be illogical not to require such proof under § 1014. We disagree. Section 1344 criminalizes the execution of a scheme to defraud a financial institution, while § 1014 criminalizes the making of a false statement to a financial institution "for the purpose of influencing in any way the action of" the institution with regard to, for example, an advance or a loan. The term "defraud" signifies "the deprivation of something of value by trick," see United States v. Orr, 932 F.2d 330, 332 (4th Cir. 1991) (internal quotation marks omitted), thus implying the need to demonstrate a risk of financial loss. "Influence," on the other hand, bears no such connotation. These statutes are fundamentally different, and the element read by the courts into § 1344 — that a financial institution be put at risk of financial loss — does not compel us to read that same element into § 1014.
Our assessment of § 1014 finds support in Supreme Court precedent. The Court has concluded that, under § 1014, a false statement need not be material to a financial institution's decision to advance or loan funds. United States v. Wells, 519 U.S. 482, 490, 117 S. Ct. 921, 137 L. Ed. 2d 107 (1997) ("Nowhere does [§ 1014] say that a material fact must be the subject of the false statement or so much as mention materiality."). It is difficult to discern how any immaterial false statement, i.e., a statement incapable of influencing a financial institution, see id. at 489, 117 S. Ct. 921, could possibly place such an institution at any risk of financial loss. Because materiality is not an essential element of § 1014, it would be nonsensical for us to require the Government to nonetheless prove that the financial institution faced a risk of financial loss. We decline to do so.
PSR at 17-18. The probation officer concluded that Elliott's "written statement, combined with the facts and circumstances of this case, fail [ed] to meet the threshold required for an adjustment for Acceptance of Responsibility." Id. at 18. In response to Elliott's objection to the PSR, the probation officer maintained that, "although the defendant may have proceeded to trial to preserve either a constitutional or legal issue, the defendant [had] not adequately admitted to her criminal conduct as required to receive this adjustment." Id. at A-2.
Pursuant to § 2F1.1(b) (1) of the applicable 1993 Guidelines,12 a sentencing court is obliged to calculate the offense level of a defendant convicted of a crime involving fraud or deceit on the basis of the amount of loss resulting from the scheme. The Guidelines' commentary explains that the applicable fraud loss "need not be determined with precision." U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1, cmt. n. 3. A sentencing court must simply "make a reasonable estimate of the loss, given the available information." Id.
In calculating fraud loss, a sentencing court must determine what sum the defendant extracted, or attempted to extract, through commission of his or her offense. Under the Guidelines, the "offense" includes not only the offense of conviction, but also all relevant con-duct. U.S.S.G. § 1B1.1, cmt. n. 1(l). And relevant conduct includes "all acts and omissions committed ... by the defendant ... that occurred during the commission of the offense of conviction." Id. § 1B1.3(a) (1). Elliott's actions in improperly obtaining funds from the Wheat First Account occurred "during the commission of [her] offense of conviction." Id. Accordingly, it was appropriate for the court, in calculating the fraud loss, to consider not only the losses suffered by Southside, but also those suffered by William and Mr. Furlong as well.
Pursuant to the Guidelines, a sentencing court is ordinarily required to impose sentences within the applicable Guideline range. The Guidelines seek "to anticipate a broad range of typical cases — a `heartland' — that is representative of the circumstances and consequences of ordinary crimes of the type to which the guideline applies." Rybicki, 96 F.3d at 757. A sentencing court may depart from the applicable range only when it "finds that there exists an aggravating or mitigating circumstance of a kind, or to a degree, not adequately taken into consideration by the Sentencing Commission in formulating the guidelines." United States v. Wilson, 114 F.3d 429, 432 (4th Cir. 1997) (internal quotation marks omitted).
In determining whether a departure is appropriate, the sentencing court must first establish "whether the potential basis for departure was forbidden, encouraged, discouraged, or unmentioned by the Commission." Id. at 433. Here, the court departed on the basis of Elliott's family responsibilities, namely, her role as the primary care-giver for her ill husband. In this regard, the Guidelines provide that " [f]amily ties and responsibilities... are not ordinarily relevant in determining whether a sentence should be outside the applicable guideline range." U.S.S.G. § 5H1.6. Accordingly, the basis used by the court for Elliott's departure is a "discouraged" factor. Where a factor is discouraged, "the court should depart only if the factor is present to an exceptional degree or in some other way makes the case different from the ordinary case where the factor is present." Koon, 518 U.S. at 96, 116 S. Ct. 2035. We have previously determined that a departure on the basis of family responsibilities is "permitted only upon a finding that the defendant's family ties or responsibilities are extraordinary." Wilson, 114 F.3d at 434.
A downward departure for family responsibilities is permissible only where the court finds that the family responsibilities are "extraordinary." See Wilson, 114 F.3d at 434. Generally, a sentencing court may depart downward on this basis only if it finds that the defendant is essentially "irreplaceable." See United States v. McClatchey, 316 F.3d 1122, 1133 (10th Cir. 2003) (reversing downward departure for defendant to care for his son because nothing in record "suggest [ed] that another individual could not provide the necessary assistance in [defendant's] absence"); United States v. Pereira, 272 F.3d 76, 82 (1st Cir. 2001) (reversing downward departure because " [t]he nature of the care that [defendant] renders (shopping, cleaning, food preparation, etc.) is not so highly specialized as to make him difficult to replace"); United States v. Sweeting, 213 F.3d 95, 104 (3d Cir. 2000) (reversing downward departure based on responsibility in caring for child with Tourette's Syndrome because nothing indicated that the defendant was "so irreplaceable that her otherwise ordinary family ... responsibilities are transformed into the `extraordinary'").
The Government dismissed the wire fraud charge pursuant to Rule 48(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which provides that, " [t]he government may, with leave of court, dismiss an indictment." Fed. R. Crim. P. 48(a)
"Check kiting" is "the practice of playing one checking account against another, taking advantage of bank processing delays."United States v. Turner, 312 F.3d 1137, 1139 n. 1 (9th Cir. 2002). By carefully timing deposits and withdrawals, a person is able to create "the appearance of funds present and immediately available for withdrawal in an account, when none in fact are there." Id.
18 U.S.C. § 1344(a) (1).
Although a sentencing court generally is required to apply the Guidelines Manual that is in effect on the date of sentencing, it must instead apply the Guidelines Manual "in effect on the date that the offense of conviction was committed," if it determines that use of the Guidelines Manual "in effect on the date that the defendant is sentenced would violate the ex post facto clause of the United States Constitution." U.S.S.G. § 1B1.11. The PSR recommended application of the 1993 Guidelines Manual because the Guidelines Manual in effect at the time of sentencing was "less advantageous to the defendant." PSR at 30. The district court adopted the PSR, and thus it applied the 1993 Guidelines Manual.