Opinion ID: 1198385
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Aida Salem

Text: Salem pled guilty pursuant to a written plea agreement to one count of wire fraud, 18 U.S.C. § 1343. The agreement described the fraud scheme and stated that Salem learned about the scheme from codefendant Raimondoray Cerna in approximately November 2003 and participated in the scheme from then until approximately January 2006. Salem admitted that as part of the scheme, he and his co-schemers took and received money from the victims with no intent of ever giving them the items they believed they were purchasing. He admitted that he used alias identification documents to present himself to Western Union agents and provided them with the information relayed from the foreign co-schemers that enabled him to receive the victims' funds. Salem's plea agreement stated that [w]hile participating in the scheme, [Salem] shared a common source of false identification documents with a number of his codefendants. The agreement provided one example from late March through late April 2004 involving Salem and codefendants Cerna, Gabriel Constantin, Adrian Ianc, Muszka Ladislau, and Radu Rizescu. Then it gave another example for various occasions in 2005 involving Salem, Ianc, Ladislau, Simon, and Ganescu. The agreement stated that Salem also shared with his co-schemers information on currency exchanges ... such as which to avoid and which were favorable, used common currency exchanges ... to receive fraud proceeds, and shared rides to currency exchanges when receiving victims' wire transfers. It gave several examples involving Salem and Fechete, Mihai Panaitescu, Constantin, and Ianc. It also stated that Salem and Cerna were arrested together when officers discovered they were in possession of counterfeit identification. The agreement added that for several months Salem and Ianc resided in the same apartment complex and that they also shared a common source of Western Union transaction information and occasionally traveled together ... when receiving fraud proceeds from Western Union agents. Furthermore, Salem admitted in his plea agreement that on some occasions, he and other co-schemers provided common false addresses and phone number[s] when completing the Western Union ... form[s]. The agreement provided several examples involving Salem, Ianc, Constantin, Cerna, Marian Alexandru, Fechete, and Ioan Moloman. Cell phone records revealed that during the time period that Salem participated in the scheme, he was in frequent contact with co-schemers, including Panaitescu, Fechete, Constantin, Moloman, Ianc, and Cerna. Salem admitted that at Cerna's direction, he and other co-schemers, including Panaitescu, Moloman, Stefan Dumitru, Lucian Nanau, Alexandru, and Mihail Hann, transmitted funds owed to the foreign co-schemers. Salem further admitted that he personally received wire transfers of funds from victims of the scheme in an amount in excess of $400,000. The Presentence Investigation Report (PSR) indicated that during the time of Salem's participation in the scheme, approximately 2100 victims lost more than $5.3 million. Salem also admitted in his plea agreement that he was aware that his codefendants such as Fechete, Ianc, Constantin, Mihai Bledea, Moloman, Hann, Alexandru, Panaitescu, Constantin Lucan, Dumitru, and Nanau were also receiving wire transfers from the scheme to defraud. Based on this, the government's position before sentencing was that Salem was responsible for between $2.5 million and $7 million in losses and over 250 victims numbers that would result in Guidelines enhancements under U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b). Salem, however, contended the loss was more than $200,000 but not more than $400,000, and that the offense involved more than 50 but less than 250 victims. In his Objections to PSR and Sentencing Memorandum, Salem acknowledged that he undertook and participated in criminal activity with and as directed by co-defendant managers Cerna and Ianc and argued that the government failed to prove that he should be held responsible for the losses caused by the other participants beyond Cerna and Ianc. And at the sentencing hearing, Salem's counsel stated that Salem was accepting responsibility not only for his own actions but also for the reasonably foreseeable actions of co-participants in the scheme, specifically individuals such as Mr. Cerna, Mr. [Ianc], the gentlem[e]n who recruited my client, and also managed and supervised him. [1] At the sentencing hearing on May 22, 2008, the government conceded a total loss of greater than $1 million but less than $2.5 million. The district court found by a preponderance of the evidence that: Cerna, Fechete, Ianc, Constantin, Moloman, Hann, Alexandru, Panaitescu, Lucan, Dumitru, and Nanau participated in the scheme, [2] and it was reasonably foreseeable to [Salem] then that because of the known conduct or reasonably foreseeable conduct of these other persons to [him], that over a thousand victims would suffer losses of $1 million but less than $2.5 million. The court found that under U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(a)(1) Salem's base offense level was seven and added sixteen levels based on the amount of the loss, U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(1)(I), and added six levels based on the number of victims, U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(2)(c). The resulting Guidelines range was 97 to 121 months. The court sentenced Salem to 97 months, at the bottom of the range, and ordered him to pay $404,091 in restitution.