Opinion ID: 3148929
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Defendant Sencan

Text: Sencan’s only argument on appeal is a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain his convictions. We review challenges to the sufficiency of evidence de novo. United States v. Gamory, 635 F.3d 480, 497 (11th Cir. 2011). We review the evidence in the light most favorable to the Government and resolve all reasonable inferences in favor of the jury’s verdict. United States v. Doe, 661 F.3d 550, 560 (11th Cir. 2011). “A conviction must be upheld unless the jury could not have found the defendant guilty under any reasonable construction of evidence.” United States v. Byrd, 403 F.3d 1278, 1288 (11th Cir. 2005). To sustain a conviction for conspiracy to commit a fraud, the Government must prove that a defendant “knew of and willfully joined the unlawful scheme to defraud.” United States v. Maxwell, 579 F.3d 1282, 1299 (11th Cir. 2009). Circumstantial evidence can be used to prove knowledge of a scheme. Id. Furthermore, “[a] scheme to defraud requires proof of a material misrepresentation, or the omission or concealment of a material fact calculated to 6 Case: 14-12577 Date Filed: 10/23/2015 Page: 7 of 18 deceive another out of money or property.” Id. Sencan argues that the record is devoid of evidence that he intentionally participated in a fraudulent scheme, or that he knowingly made a material misrepresentation. We find the evidence to be more than adequate.4 As described above, Sencan regularly instructed investors to wire money to RAMCO 1, after which he instructed Petersen to divert the money into other accounts, not to Westover. For example, in July 2011, an investor wired $100,000 to RAMCO 1 expecting it to be invested using Westover’s advanced computer program. That same day, Sencan instead told Petersen to distribute the sum to various investor accounts. Consistent with those instructions, Petersen moved $12,800 into a business account that he and Merry controlled. He also wired $86,980 to Sencan, who used those funds to pay two investors, keeping a cut of $17,000 for himself. None of the money was moved to Westover as promised in the co-investment agreement. Despite knowing that these funds were not being invested with Westover––meaning there was no chance that investors would earn a profit or necessarily even get their principal back––Sencan continued to send investors weekly emails falsely showing they were earning major profits. Then, 4 Our sufficiency-of-the-evidence analysis also applies to both the substantive securities and wire-fraud charges because these crimes require proof of the underlying scheme to defraud. See 15 U.S.C. § 77q (criminalizing the use of interstate communications in the offer or sale of securities in a scheme to defraud) and 18 U.S.C. § 1343 (criminalizing the use of wire communications in interstate commerce in the course of a scheme to defraud). 7 Case: 14-12577 Date Filed: 10/23/2015 Page: 8 of 18 when investors began to make requests for their money, Sencan reassured investors by telling them that he was in the same situation they were, even though he had earned back his $40,000 investment several times over, funneling nearly $300,000 of investors’ money to his personal account and to his wife. These acts alone demonstrate Sencan’s knowledge that he was part of a fraudulent scheme. Further, the Government presented evidence confirming that Sencan was on notice of his wrongdoing as he continued to participate in the fraud. Specifically, even when Sencan was warned several times by investors and the FBI that he was involved in a Ponzi scheme, he failed to heed the warnings and continued to send monthly statements to investors. Based on the evidence, the jury reasonably concluded that Sencan knew he was involved in a Ponzi scheme and knowingly made material misrepresentations to investors. 5 Sencan’s convictions are therefore AFFIRMED.