Opinion ID: 3049934
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Supplemental Briefing Before Sentencing

Text: The district court ordered briefs addressing the fine amount. PUGH’s brief reiterated its challenge to the PSI’s calculations, arguing there was no evidence the County suffered any pecuniary loss from the bribery scheme. The government recalculated PUGH’s pecuniary gain based on a job-by-job analysis of PUGH’s contracts with the County. The government submitted a list of bribery and post-bribery jobs, which showed the revenue earned, gross profit, gross profit percentage, and “improper gain” for each job. The government calculated an average unit price for items used by PUGH in eight of its projects over a 20-month period from 2001 to 2002 and then compared those prices for this time period to the average unit price PUGH charged the County for these items during the bribery 138 PUGH’s total did not use certain amounts that were included in the PSI, such as (1) $60,696 that PUGH claimed Swann repaid to PUGH, (2) $37,000 worth of unperformed work on Swann’s home that PUGH paid Guthrie for, and (3) $167,679 in items PUGH gave to McNair. 161 period of 1997 to 2001. The government determined PUGH’s improper gain was $24.667 million, while PUGH made about $20 million in “normal profit.” Based on the improper gain of $24.667 million and applicable multipliers, the government concluded PUGH’s guidelines fine range was $34.533 million to $69.067 million.139 PUGH’s reply brief then challenged the government’s recalculation for failing to account for a price increase that occurred in 2003 and for using artificially low post-bribery prices in 2001 and 2002. PUGH claims this skewed the government’s analysis of PUGH’s profits to reflect greater profits during the bribery period. PUGH also claimed that, to prove PUGH profited from the bribery scheme, the government had to show that PUGH’s bribes caused the PRC to limit the number of cured-in-place contracts.