Opinion ID: 587722
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Commitment Certificate Counts

Text: 21 Defendant asserts that the language of the commitment certificates, that [a]ll charges and fees collected from me as shown in the settlement statement have been paid from my own funds, Appellant's Brief tab K, does not encompass earnest money deposits or down payments. We agree. 22 Although the settlement statements identify a number of items as charges or fees, neither earnest money nor down payment is designated as a charge or fee on the settlement statements. The purpose of the charges and fees certification is to assure that the lender did not impose excessive or unauthorized fees. See, e.g., 24 C.F.R. § 203.27 (down payment and earnest money not mentioned in list of authorized charges, fees or discounts.). The certification is not directed to earnest money or down payment; in fact the certificates of commitment make no statements about earnest money or down payment. A defendant may not be convicted for a statement not charged in the indictment. See Eaton v. Tulsa, 415 U.S. 697, 699, 94 S.Ct. 1228, 1230, 39 L.Ed.2d 693 (1974). 23 We also reject the government's argument that we can uphold the convictions for false statements in the certificates of commitment based on the mortgagee's certification. The mortgagee certifies that [t]he statements made in its application for insurance and in the Mortgagor's Certificate are true and correct to our best knowledge. Appellant's Brief tab K. As to the mortgagor's certificate, we have ruled above that this does not make the charged false statements concerning earnest money and down payment. As to the application for insurance, the record on appeal includes only one of the applications for commitment for insurance, related to count 3. See II R. tab 148, gov't ex. 6. Even assuming they all are the same, and that the government can rely on the mortgagee's certificate--which it apparently did not at trial--we cannot uphold the convictions. The application for commitment for insurance includes, at item 24K, an entry for the cash from borrower, which we interpret to mean down payment; but it makes no representation concerning earnest money. As we note in our discussion of the unanimity issue, infra Part IVA, the indictment and jury charge required the jury to find that defendant made a false statement involving both earnest money and down payment. Therefore, we hold there was insufficient evidence on which to base the nine convictions for making a false statement on the commitment certificates in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1010.