Case Name: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Edwin David WOOD, II, Defendant-Appellant
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 2004-04-19
Citations: 364 F.3d 704
Docket Number: No. 01-2548
Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Edwin David WOOD, II, Defendant-Appellant.
Judges: Before DAUGHTREY and GILMAN, Circuit Judges; GWIN, District Judge.
Reporter: Federal Reporter 3d Series
Volume: 364
Pages: 704–727

Head Matter:
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Edwin David WOOD, II, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 01-2548.
United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.
Argued: Oct. 22, 2003.
Decided and Filed: April 19, 2004.
Kip T. Bollin (argued and briefed), Thompson Hine (argued and briefed), William B. Leahy (briefed), Cleveland, OH, for Appellant.
Richard S. Murray (argued and briefed), Assistant United States Attorney, Grand Rapids, MI, for Appellee.
Before DAUGHTREY and GILMAN, Circuit Judges; GWIN, District Judge.
The Honorable James S. Gwin, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Ohio, sitting by designation.

Opinion:
GILMAN, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which DAUGHTREY, J., joined. GWIN, D.J. (pp. 717-27), delivered a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.
GILMAN, Circuit Judge.
In August 1999, Edwin David Wood, II was indicted on 22 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering. These charges arose out of two loan transactions that Wood arranged in 1994. Wood pleaded not guilty. After a jury found Wood guilty on 21 of the 22 counts, the district court sentenced him to 168 months of imprisonment and ordered him to pay approximately $570,000 in restitution. Wood appeals, arguing that (1) certain jury instructions were erroneous, (2) venue in the Western District of Michigan was improper with regard to five of the seven mail fraud charges, (3) the district court's restitution order was excessive, and (4) the government failed to produce sufficient evidence concerning one of the loan transactions to support his conviction. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM Wood's conviction and sentence on all counts other than the mail fraud charges in Counts 17-21, REVERSE Wood's conviction on these latter counts for lack of proper venue, and, accordingly, REMAND for resentencing.
I. BACKGROUND
The charges against Wood arise out of two loan agreements executed by him in 1994. Wood orchestrated these transactions from the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Chicago, a federal prison, between June 15 and October 6 of 1994. While at the MCC, Wood worked through First Financial Acceptance Company, Inc., which had offices in Battle Creek, Michigan. First Financial personnel did not disclose to the potential borrowers that Wood was in prison as a convicted felon.
To attract customers, First Financial advertised in publications such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Investors Business Daily, offering to lend up to 90% of the value of any eligible stock that the prospective borrower owned. These ads generated a large number of telephone inquiries. Wood kept track of these inquiries by calling First Financial from prison and then having First Financial personnel connect him to the prospective borrower through call forwarding. Interested callers were sent a package of documents compiled by Wood. These documents included a Security and Pledge Agreement, which provided in pertinent part as follows:
Lender [First Financial] shall hold the pledged shares as security for the repayment of the loan and shall not encumber the shares except in accordance with the provisions of this Agreement. . In the event that Pledgor defaults in the performance of any of the terms of this Agreement, . Lender may, upon five (5) days advance written notice to Pledgor, sent by certified mail, and without liability for any diminution in price which may have occurred, sell all of the pledged shares in such manner and for such price as Lender may determine, at any bona fide public sale, and Lender shall be free to purchase all or any part of the pledged shares at such sale.
First Financial utilized a technique called "selling short against the box" to fund the loans. (For a detailed description of short-against-the-box transactions, see Edward D. Kleinbard, Risky and Riskless Positions in Securities, Taxes, December 1993, at 788). Neither in the Agreement nor in any other communication with prospective borrowers did First Financial disclose the use of short-against-the-box transactions to fund the requested loans.
The first loan transaction at issue was with Robert Graham. Graham wanted to retire a debt with the $230,000 that he intended to borrow from First Financial. He pledged 70,000 shares of Sonic Environmental Systems stock as collateral. Graham received a loan commitment from First Financial for the $230,000 in June of 1994, but he did not receive any of the loan proceeds until November of that year. At that time, Graham received approximately $31,000. First Financial made no other disbursements on its $230,000 commitment.
Meanwhile, on September 13 and 14 of 1994, a broker acting on Wood's instructions sold short 35,000 shares of Graham's Sonic Environmental Systems stock for $173,191. The sale of Graham's stock was supposed to be a short-against-the-box sale, but because the broker was unable to borrow 35,000 shares of Sonic Environmental Systems stock in the open market, a short-against-the-box transaction could not be executed. Instead, the short position was closed by selling the 35,000 shares on the open market in October of 1994.
Graham was not told that half of his collateral had been sold when he attempted to get his stock back in late 1994. First Financial returned the remaining 35,000 shares of Graham's collateral to him in January of 1995. Graham later sold the stock and paid the approximately $31,000 balance due on his loan. He never received the rest of his collateral back.
The second transaction at issue in this case arises from a loan First Financial made to Gordon Miller and his mother, Ruth Miller. Ruth Miller pledged 8,167 shares of her Comerica Bank stock as collateral for the loan, and Gordon Miller received approximately $200,000 in loan proceeds in September of 1994. First Fi nancial sold Ruth Miller's 8,167 shares of stock short against the box two days after closing on the Millers' loan. It received approximately $227,000 from the sale. The government presented evidence at trial that, at Wood's direction, First Financial closed its short position in Comerica by delivering Ruth Miller's stock in December of 1994 to the broker who provided the shares sold short. Although the stock was thus disposed of by First Financial within three months of closing the loan transaction, Gordon Miller continued to make loan payments through June of 1996. Ruth Miller never recovered her collateral from First Financial.
In August of 1999, a federal grand jury returned a 22 count indictment that charged Wood with 7 counts of wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343, 7 counts of mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341, 3 counts of money laundering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(A)(i), 2 counts of money laundering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(l)(B)(i), and 3 counts of engaging in monetary transactions with proceeds of a specified unlawful activity in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1957. Arguing that the district court lacked venue to try certain mail fraud charges, Wood sought dismissal of most of the mail fraud counts before trial, at the close of the government's case, and at the close of all of the evidence. The district court denied all of these motions. Wood also moved for acquittal under Rule 29 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure at the end of the government's case and at the close of all the evidence. The district court denied these motions as well. After an eight-day trial in April of 2001, a jury convicted Wood on 21 of the 22 counts. He was later sentenced to 168 months of imprisonment and ordered to pay $570,025.83 in restitution. The district court entered judgment on October 26, 2001. This timely appeal followed.
II. ANALYSIS
A. Jury instructions
Wood claims that the district court erred in instructing the jury that short sales against the box encumber the stock pledged as collateral. He maintains that, as a matter of law, such sales do not encumber the stock, thus making the court's instructions to the jury erroneous. Wood concludes that the jury "was charged in a manner that allowed them to convict him on insufficient grounds — for legal conduct."
Because Wood did not object to the jury instructions at trial, we review the instructions under the "plain error" standard, considering whether "the instructions, when taken as a whole, were so clearly wrong as to produce a grave miscarriage of justice." United States v. Sanderson, 966 F.2d 184, 187 (6th Cir.1992). Plain error is a stringent standard. See United States v. Cox, 957 F.2d 264, 267 (6th Cir.1992). This court in Cox noted that the Supreme Court and numerous federal courts caution that the plain error doctrine should be applied only "in exceptional circumstances, and solely to avoid a miscarriage of justice. Recourse may be had to the doctrine only on appeal from a trial infected with error so 'plain' the trial judge and prosecutor were derelict in countenancing it." Id. (quotation marks omitted).
Wood claims that the following instruction was erroneous:
The government has alleged, in part, that Defendant Wood engaged in a scheme or plan to obtain money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises and, more particularly, that a short sale against the box encumbers the securities in the box.
The government concedes that this portion of the district court's instruction suggests that a short sale against the box is a fraudulent transaction in and of itself. What followed this portion of the instruction, however, is significant in determining whether the instruction as a whole was erroneous. The court continued:
A short sale is made by selling a security that the seller does not own. This is different from a short sale against the box. A short sale is "against the box" to the extent that the separate account contemporaneously owns or has the right to obtain at no added cost securities identical to those sold. The owner of the account is considered the owner of the shares deposited "in the box."
The shares can be returned in one of two ways:
1. By delivering the shares held "in the box" — or in the account; or
2. By purchasing in the market identical shares. If the market value is higher than the amount received in the short sale, then the account owner must come up with more money than he received from the short sale.... If the market value of the short sale goes down, then the account owner must come up with less money than he received from the short sale.... [I]f the account owner is required to deliver the shares "in the box" to a third person, like Mrs. Miller, for example, after she has repaid her loan, he has to do two things:
a. Deliver the equivalent shares to the third person-that's Mrs. Miller and
b. Cover with cash or shares the shares that were in the box so that the broker is not at risk on the money paid to the account holder at the time of the original short sale.
This instruction, when read in its entirety, explained how the short sale against the box had to be covered so that the collateral could be returned once the loan was repaid. Moreover, the jury instructions as a whole detailed the elements of the alleged crimes and did not imply that a short sale against the box was inherently a fraudulent transaction. We therefore conclude that the jury instructions were not "so clearly wrong as to produce a grave miscarriage of justice." United States v. Sanderson, 966 F.2d 184, 187 (6th Cir.1992).
B. Venue
Wood claims that because the government did not prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the checks forming the basis of the mail fraud charges in Counts 17 through 21 were sent from, received in, or moved through the Western District of Michigan, venue in that district was improper. Accordingly, Wood urges this court to reverse his convictions on these counts.
Counts 17 through 21 allege that Wood, on five separate occasions, "did cause to be deposited, sent and delivered by mail . from Battle Creek, Michigan, to Ruth Miller in Birmingham, Michigan, [checks] purporting to be Mrs. Miller's dividend check from her Comerica stock being used as collateral for the First Financial loan to her son." Before trial, Wood moved unsuccessfully for the dismissal of Counts 17 through 21. At the end of the government's case and again at the close of all evidence, Wood moved, pursuant to Rule 29 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, to dismiss Counts 17 through 21 because of improper venue. The district court denied these motions. Count 16 was also part of the Rule 29 motions, but Wood does not include that count in his argument on appeal.
Both the United States Constitution and Rule 18 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure provide that a person can be tried for a crime only where that crime was committed. United States v. Cabrales, 524 U.S. 1, 6-7, 118 S.Ct. 1772, 141 L.Ed.2d 1 (1998). The Constitution requires that all criminal trials "shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed." U.S. Const, art. Ill, § 2, cl. 3. A similar guarantee is found in the Sixth Amendment: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed." U.S. Const, amend. VI. Rule 18 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure likewise provides that "[ujnless a statute or these rules permit otherwise, the government must prosecute an offense in a district where the offense was committed."
"[T]he locus delecti [of the crime charged] must be determined from the nature of the crime alleged and the location of the act or acts constituting it." Cabrales, 524 U.S. at 6-7, 118 S.Ct. 1772. In determining the "locus delecti" of a crime, the Supreme Court directs us to "initially identify the conduct constituting the offense (the nature of the crime) and then discern the location of the commission of the criminal acts." United States v. Rodriguez-Moreno, 526 U.S. 275, 279, 119 S.Ct. 1239, 143 L.Ed.2d 388 (1999). Venue is therefore appropriate only in the district where the conduct comprising the essential elements of the offense occurred. The government must prove that venue was proper as to each count charged. United States v. Crozier, 259 F.3d 503, 519 (6th Cir.2001). Because venue is an essential aspect of the government's case, "[i]f the government does not establish venue and the defendant objects at trial, then an appellate court must reverse the conviction." United States v. Scaife, 749 F.2d 338, 346 (6th Cir.1984).
For venue purposes, this court has held that mail fraud is a continuing offense governed by 18 U.S.C. § 3237(a). United States v. Holt, 899 F.2d 15, 1990 WL 37613, at *1-2 (6th Cir. April 3, 1990) (unpublished opinion). Section 3237 reads in pertinent part as follows:
(a) Except as otherwise expressly provided by enactment of Congress, any offense against the United States begun in one district and completed in another, or committed in more than one district, may be inquired of and prosecuted in any district in which such offense was begun, continued, or completed.
Any offense involving the use of the mails, transportation in interstate or foreign commerce, or the importation of an object or person into the United States is a continuing offense and, except as otherwise expressly provided by enactment of Congress, may be inquired of and prosecuted in any district from, through, or into which such commerce, mail matter, or imported object or person moves.
The substantive offense of mail fraud, on the other hand, is defined by the following portion of the federal mail fraud statute:
Whoever having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud . for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice or attempting so to do, places in any post office or authorized depository for mail matter, any matter or thing whatever to be sent or delivered by the Postal Service, or deposits or causes to be deposited any matter or thing whatever to be sent or delivered by any private or commercial interstate carrier, or takes or receives therefrom, any such matter or thing, or knowingly causes to be delivered by mail or such carrier according to the direction thereon, or at the place at which it is directed to be delivered by the person to whom it is addressed, any such matter or thing, shall be fined un der this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.
18 U.S.C. § 1341.
Appropriate venue under the mail fraud statute is far from clear in the present case because the government did not allege that the checks at issue in mail fraud Counts 19-21 were either mailed from or received in the Western District of Michigan. Rather, the government argues that venue in the Western District of Michigan was appropriate because the offices of First Financial, located in the Western District of Michigan, were used at every step of the scheme to defraud.
As a starting point, we note that in discussing the mail fraud statute, court decisions have focused on the use of the mails. The Ninth Circuit, for example, has stated that the mail fraud statute protects the instrumentality of communication "making the use of the mails . as part of a fraudulent scheme an independent offense quite separate from any other potentially illegal conduct." United States v. Garlick, 240 F.3d 789 (9th Cir.2001) (emphasis in original). See also United States v. Monostra, 125 F.3d 183, 187 (3d Cir.1997) (comparing the mail and wire fraud statute to the bank fraud statute and commenting that "the mail and wire fraud statutes do not penalize the victimization of specific persons; rather, they are directed at the instrumentalities of fraud.") (emphasis added) (citations and quotations marks omitted).
This concentration upon the use of the mails makes sense, given that the use of the mails is what establishes federal jurisdiction in these cases. Although "the use of the mails need not be an essential element of the [fraudulent] scheme," Schmuck v. United States, 489 U.S. 705, 710, 109 S.Ct. 1443, 103 L.Ed.2d 734 (1989), such use is essential to federal jurisdiction, United States v. Mikell, 163 F.Supp.2d 720, 729 (E.D.Mich.2001). Without the use of the mails, after all, the fraudulent scheme would be only a state-law offense.
We have found only three cases that have directly addressed a situation comparable to the present case where the "base" location for the fraudulent scheme was in a different district than the place of the mailings. Two of these cases rejected the government's expansive view of mail fraud venue. See Kreuter v. United States, 218 F.2d 532, 534 (5th Cir.1955) ("[T]he gravamen of the offense is the use of the mails. Therefore, [defendant] could be tried where he caused a letter to be either mailed or delivered in furtherance of the scheme. The place where the scheme is conceived or put in motion is immaterial, it is the place of mailing or delivery by mail."); United States v. Mikell, 163 F.Supp.2d at 728 (holding that venue was inappropriate "for a prosecution under § 1314 in a district where the mail matter did not move from, through, or into, but where an aspect of the scheme to defraud was devised and executed").
The third case is United States v. Olen, 183 F.Supp. 212 (S.D.N.Y.1960), which, although not a mail fraud case, discusses the general venue statute for continuing crimes, 18 U.S.C. § 3237(a). In Olen, the district court granted the defendant's request to transfer venue in a securities fraud case to the Southern District of Alabama where the scheme to defraud was located, even though the mailings in furtherance of that scheme occurred in the Southern District of New York. Id. at 218. The district court focused on the second paragraph of § 3237(a) that prescribes venue for mail fraud prosecutions, even though mail fraud was not charged, yet ignored the first paragraph of § 3237(a) that appears to justify the court's decision. We frankly find Olen's reasoning unpersuasive as it relates to the present case.
Also relevant to our inquiry are two Supreme Court decisions, neither of which involved the mail fraud statute, but both of which resolved venue challenges in a criminal case. One is United States v. Cabrales, 524 U.S. 1, 118 S.Ct. 1772, 141 L.Ed.2d 1 (1998), where the government prosecuted Cabrales in Missouri for illegal financial transactions in Florida. The Supreme Court held that venue in Missouri was inappropriate, despite the fact that the source of the funds was from drug trafficking in that state, reasoning in part that the money laundering statutes proscribed "only the financial transactions (acts located entirely in Florida), not the anterior criminal conduct that yielded the funds allegedly laundered." Id. at 7, 118 S.Ct. 1772.
The other relevant decision is United States v. Rodriguez-Moreno, 526 U.S. 275, 119 S.Ct. 1239, 143 L.Ed.2d 388 (1999), where a drug distributor and his henchmen kidnaped another drug dealer in Texas and held him captive as they traveled through several states, including New Jersey. Rodriguez was tried in New Jersey "for using or carrying a firearm during and in relation to any crime of violence." Id. at 276, 119 S.Ct. 1239 (citation and quotation marks omitted). The Supreme Court rejected Rodriguez's claim that venue was appropriate only in Maryland, where the gun was actually possessed. It reasoned that kidnaping is a continuing offense, causing venue to lie in any district where the offense "was begun, continued, or completed" as provided in the first paragraph of 18 U.S.C. § 3237(a). Id. at 282, 119 S.Ct. 1239. Aside from the fact that neither Cabrales nor Rodriguez-Moreno involved the mail fraud statute, they point in different directions as to the appropriate resolution of the case before us.
In the present case, the fraudulent scheme was not separable from the mailings, which is the very reason why Cab-rales is not directly on point. If it were, then the venue issue would not be an open question for us to resolve. But Rodriguez-Moreno is not directly on point either, because the decision relied solely upon the first paragraph of 18 U.S.C. § 3237(a), which provides, in pertinent part, that "any offense against the United States begun in one district and completed in another, or committed in more than one district, may be inquired of and prosecuted in any district in which such offense was begun, continued, or completed." We are concerned here, however, with the second paragraph of § 3237(a), which specifically deals with any offense involving the use of the mails: "Any offense involving the use of the mails . may be inquired of and prosecuted in any district from, through, or into which such . mail matter . moves."
The dissent focuses in part on a "plain reading of the text" to support its conclusion that venue for mail fraud may be based on the situs of the scheme to defraud. (Dissenting Op. 727) But the "text" that the dissent focuses on is § 1341, which creates the substantive offense of mail fraud, not § 3237(a), which deals specifically with the proper venue for "any offense involving the use of the mails." See United States v. Holt, 899 F.2d 15, 1990 WL 37613, at *1-2 (6th Cir. April 3, 1990) (unpublished opinion) (holding that 18 U.S.C. § 3237 governs venue in mail fraud cases); United States v. Reitmeyer, 356 F.3d 1313 (10th Cir.2004) (discussing venue in mail fraud cases and noting that "Congress specifically stated 'any offense involving the use of the mails . is a continuing offense' for venue purposes."); United States v. Loe, 248 F.3d 449, 465 (5th Cir.2001) ("As a 'continuing offense,' mail fraud may be prosecuted in 'any district in which such offense was begun, continued, or completed.' ").
The dissent questions whether the offense of mail fraud is an "offense involving use of the mails...." 18 U.S.C. § 3237(a). (Dissenting Op. 721) To the contrary, we believe that the question virtually answers itself. If the plain meaning of language is to be given any efficacy at all, how can the offense of mail fraud not be an "offense involving the use of the mails...."? We find this court's application of § 3237(a) to the offense of mail fraud in Holt, as well as the Fifth and Tenth Circuits' discussion of the issue, more persuasive and in line with common sense that the contrary Second Circuit decision in United States v. Brennan, 183 F.3d 139 (2d Cir.1999), that is relied upon so heavily by the dissent. Consistent with this court's previous decision in Holt, as well as Reitmeyer and Loe, we believe that § 3237(a) is the controlling statute on venue for mail fraud cases.
A plain reading of the text thus leads us to the conclusion that venue in a mail fraud case is limited to districts where the mail is deposited, received, or moves through, even if the fraud's core was elsewhere. Whether or not Congress could constitutionally provide otherwise is not before us, because the present language of § 3237(a) is determinative.
The dissent also focuses in part on fairness to the defendant. (Dissenting Op. 726-27) We find this argument puzzling in light of the fact that the government is the party pressing for venue where the core of the fraudulent scheme took place, not Wood. If public policy supports accommodating the accused by promoting "fairness," then it should support Wood's desire to limit venue to where the mailings took place. The dissent's expansive interpretation that would impose a different venue on Wood thus appears contrary to public policy as expressed in § 3237(a).
Finally, we note the dissent's concern that "[b]y applying § 3237(a) to mail fraud, the majority could permit the government to hale a defendant into court in distant jurisdictions having virtually no relation to the underlying crime." (Dissenting Op. 723) We would first observe that this is not what happened in the case before us, nor is the dissent's concern consistent with Department of Justice Policy. United States Department of Justice, United States Attorneys' Manual 9-43.300 (1997) ("Department of Justice policy opposes mail fraud venue based solely on the mail matter passing through a jurisdiction."). Second, the dissent's "parade of horribles" is really a challenge to § 3237(a) itself, because the statute allows all "continuing offense[s]" to be prosecuted "in any district from, through, or into which such commerce, mail matter, or imported object or person moves." (Emphasis added.) We would note in this regard that the dissent's concern was evidently not shared by the Supreme Court in Rodriguez-Moreno, because the Court expressly held that the defendant could be prosecuted under § 3237(a) for the illegal possession of a firearm in New Jersey, through which he traveled on his kidnaping odyssey, even though the gun was actually possessed only in Maryland. United States v. Rodriguez-Moreno, 526 U.S. 275, 119 S.Ct. 1239, 143 L.Ed.2d 388, (1999).
We now turn our attention to the mail fraud charged in Counts 17 and 18. Unlike Counts 19-21 discussed above, where the government based venue solely on the existence of a fraudulent scheme with a significant nexus to the Western District of Michigan, the government argues that it proved by a preponderance of the evidence that the checks involved in Counts 17 and 18 were actually mailed from Battle Creek, which is located within the district. Counts 17 and 18 refer to checks signed by Jacqueline Johnson, an attorney based in Columbus, Ohio, who occasionally worked for Wood. The checks are dated May 31, 1995, and August 28, 1995. Johnson testified that she traveled to Michigan "quite a bit" during "March, April, May, through probably late 1995.... " She noted that the bank account from which the two checks were drawn was a Battle Creek account and that any checks written when she was frequently traveling to Michigan "were probably all written while we were visiting the offices in Battle Creek." Based upon this testimony, the government argues that it proved that venue is proper as to Counts 17 and 18 by a preponderance of the evidence.
Wood counters that the undisputed evidence at trial showed that the checks were sent to Ruth Miller in Birmingham, Michigan, which is located in the Eastern District of Michigan. He also points out that the evidence at trial showed that the checkbook for the Battle Creek account on which the checks were drawn was kept in Ohio and that the dividend checks were generally sent from Columbus. Moreover, Wood was in federal custody in Chicago during the relevant time period and was therefore not personally sending or receiving mail in the Western District of Michigan.
Johnson's testimony that any checks written while she was traveling in Michigan were "probably all written while we were visiting the offices in Battle Creek" does not answer the question at hand. In the first place, she had no specific recollection that the particular two checks in question were in fact written while she was in Michigan. Nor was she asked if, after writing any checks in Battle Creek, she then mailed them from Battle Creek. Under these ambiguous circumstances, we conclude that the government failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Johnson actually mailed the two checks at issue from the Western District of Michigan. This precludes a finding that venue was proper with respect to Counts 17 and 18. We therefore reverse Wood's conviction on these counts, as well as on Counts 19-21, and remand for resentenc-ing.
C. Restitution
Wood also claims that the district court erred in imposing restitution as a penalty for the Graham and Miller loan transactions. The district court ordered Wood to pay $125,000 in restitution to Graham and approximately $445,000 in restitution to the Millers. We review de novo whether a restitution order is permitted under the law. United States v. Dunigan, 163 F.3d 979, 981 (6th Cir.1999). If it is, then the amount of restitution ordered is reviewed under the "abuse of discretion" standard. Id. Because Wood did not object to the restitution awards at sentencing, however, we will not set aside the district court's determination unless it constitutes plain error. United States v. Bondurant, 39 F.3d 665, 668 (6th Cir.1994).
The district court had authority under 18 U.S.C. § 3663 to order Wood to pay restitution. This statute provides in pertinent part as follows:
(B)(i) The court, in determining whether to order restitution under this section, shall consider — (I) the amount of the loss sustained by each victim as a result of the offense; and (II) the financial resources of the defendant, the financial needs and earnings ability of the defendant and the defendant's dependents, and such other factors as the court deems appropriate.
Wood argues that the district court failed to consider his financial situation as the statute mandates. The government counters that because Wood refused to complete his personal financial statement, he did not meet his burden under 18 U.S.C. § 3664(e), which provides in pertinent part as follows:
Any dispute as to the proper amount or type of restitution shall be resolved by the court by the preponderance of the evidence.... The burden of demonstrating the financial resources of the defendant and the financial needs of the defendant's dependents, shall be on the defendant.
Although he failed to complete his personal financial statement, Wood's presentence report reflects that "[f]rom April 1996 to the present [the date of the presentence report], . he received $20,000 a year." Wood's failure to cooperate and to complete his personal financial statement undercuts his argument that the district court should have taken his financial situation into account at sentencing.
The district court appears, however, to have had some awareness of Wood's financial situation, even without Wood's personal financial statement. After ordering Wood to pay approximately $570,000 in restitution and a $5,000 fine, the court waived the fine because it found that Wood "[did] not have the ability to pay a fine, because he can't even pay restitution probably. But he doesn't have the financial wherewithal to pay both certainly. So I'll reverse myself and waive the fine in this case." Thus the district court apparently had some understanding of Wood's financial situation.
This court has taken a clear position against restitution orders in amounts "that a defendant cannot possibly pay," reasoning that such restitution orders threaten "respect for judicial orders generally and provide[ ] the defendant with less incentive to seek remunerative, rehabilitative, and non-criminal employment." United States v. Dunigan, 163 F.3d 979, 982 (6th Cir.1999) (quotation marks omitted). In the present case, however, the record provides no basis to conclude that the district court definitively knew that Wood could not pay the award. Wood bore the responsibility of providing the court with details of his financial situation. See United States v. Hall, 71 F.3d 569, 573-74 (6th Cir.1995) ("The Sixth Circuit has held repeatedly that the district court is not required to make findings on the defendant's financial condition."). We conclude that the district court's restitution order does not rise to the level of plain error because Wood's lack of cooperation belies his argument that the order "affected the fairness or integrity of the judicial proceeding." United States v. Koeberlein, 161 F.3d 946, 952 (6th Cir.1998).
Wood makes two additional arguments as to why the restitution awards were erroneous. He contends that the district court miscalculated the loss sustained by the Millers because it failed to consider the Millers' receipt and use of loan proceeds that were never repaid. Wood also argues that the court failed to consider that the Millers and Wood had settled their claims against each other in a prior civil action. These arguments fail, however, because evidence in the record shows that the court did take these considerations into account when ordering the restitution awards. And even if the court had not taken these factors into account, we cannot say that this would rise to the level of plain error in light of Wood's failure to object to the awards at sentencing. Accordingly, we affirm the district court's restitution awards.
D. Sufficiency of the evidence
Wood's final argument is that, with respect to the Miller transaction, the government failed to present sufficient evidence for a rational trier of fact to convict him on Counts 7-11 and 16-22 of the indictment. He contends that (1) the Millers breached their loan agreement, thus giving First Financial the right under the Agreement to sell the Millers' stock; (2) there was no sale as alleged in the indictment, only a "short sale against the box"; and (3) the government failed to show that Wood was being deceitful when he claimed in a telephone conversation in August of 1996 to have 2,950 shares of Ruth Miller's Comeri-ca stock. When reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to support a criminal conviction, the "relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979) (emphasis in original); see also United States v. Kincaide, 145 F.3d 771, 781 (6th Cir.1998) (employing the Jackson standard of review).
Wood first contends that, because the evidence at trial demonstrated that the Millers defaulted on their loan, First Financial had the right to sell the Millers' Comerica stock under the terms of the Agreement. The government counters that the parties treated the loan as an outstanding debt through 1996, yet First Financial had in fact sold Miller's collateral long before it ever claimed that the Millers were in default.
First Financial closed on the Millers' loan for $200,000 on September 19, 1994. The government presented evidence at trial that First Financial sold Ruth Miller's 8,167 shares of Comerica stock short against the box two days later. According to the government, Wood directed First Financial to cover its short position in Comerica stock by delivering Ruth Miller's stock to a broker, on December 8, 1994. This means that less than three months after the Millers entered into the loan agreement, First Financial had disposed of their collateral.
The earliest default notice First Financial sent to Gordon Miller was in the spring of 1995 and the latest was in early 1996. Gordon Miller made 12 payments to First Financial between October of 1994 and June of 1996, 10 of which were made after Ruth Miller's stock had been sold in December of 1994. Viewed in the light most favorable to the government, this proof was sufficient for a jury to find that the Millers were not in default at the time that First Financial sold their collateral.
Wood next argues that the district court erred in denying his Rule 29 motion to dismiss Count 8 of the indictment. Count 8 alleged wire fraud due to the sale of the Ruth Miller's 8,167 shares of Comerica stock on September 21, 1994. Wood claims that there was no evidence of a "sale" of the Comerica stock. According to Wood, the sale alleged in the indictment never occurred because Ruth Miller's Comerica stock was used as collateral for a short sale of someone else's Comerica stock. "Therefore, the Comerica stock posted by the Millers as collateral for the loan from First Financial was held by First Financial in a brokerage account in a short against the box transaction." Wood's argument may be semantically correct, but it is ultimately unpersuasive.
In response to Wood's Rule 29 motion, the government argued at trial that "the term 'sale' is sufficiently broad to cover a sale short against the box at that time where Ms. Miller's stock was the collateral standing behind the loan and became, in a sense, encumbered to fulfill the obligation to restore the stock where it had been borrowed." (Emphasis added.) The government presented evidence at trial that Ruth Miller's Comerica stock was in fact disposed of on December 8, 1994, to cover the short position created by the September 21, 1994, transaction. This evidence was sufficient to support Count 8 of the indictment. We therefore find no error in the district court's denial of Wood's Rule 29 motion on Count 8.
Wood's final argument concerns the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the wire fraud charged in Count 22 of the indictment. Count 22 alleged that Wood committed wire fraud during a telephone call when he represented that 2,950 shares of Comerica stock in the account of Keystone Financial, a successor to First Financial, was a portion of Ruth Miller's stock, when in fact Wood knew that the stock was not hers. Wood argues that the government presented no evidence at trial that the stock did not belong to Ruth Miller.
Ruth Miller testified at trial, however, that she became suspicious about her stock's whereabouts when her dividend checks "were coming very late and they were not directly from Comerica, which had been the practice up until then." She explained that no one had told her where her stock was being kept and that she attempted to track it down on her own. Miller finally engaged the help of an attorney, Michael Herzoff, to assist her. Her-zoff testified at trial that after attempting to find Miller's stock, his "beliefs were . confirmed . that the stock was not in existence any more." In addition to Ruth Miller's and Michael Herzoffs testimony, Gordon Miller testified that his mother's stock was never returned to her.
This evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to the government, supports the allegation that Wood's telephone conversation, which is the subject of Count 22, furthered a scheme to defraud because "[i]t lulled [Miller] into believing her collateral was safe . when in fact it was completely gone." Accordingly, we find no error in the district court's denial of Wood's Rule 29 motion with regard to Count 22.
III. CONCLUSION
For all of the reasons set forth above, we AFFIRM Wood's conviction and sentence on all counts other than the mail fraud charges in Counts 17-21, REVERSE Wood's conviction on these latter counts, and, accordingly, REMAND for resentencing.