Opinion ID: 197077
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: 42 Finding that the legal principles were properly presented to the jury, we turn to Royal's argument that the evidence was insufficient to sustain his convictions for conspiracy and mail fraud. Royal contends first that there was no evidence of his knowledge of the conspiracy and virtually no evidence that he engaged in fraudulent conduct in furtherance of the conspiracy to defraud the government and the students he enrolled in the program. Royal also argues that the government failed to prove that he had the specific intent to defraud the Department of Education required to support his mail fraud conviction. We first review the evidence presented to the jury. 43 In assessing a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, we 'review the record to determine whether the evidence and reasonable inferences therefrom, taken as a whole and in the light most favorable to the prosecution, would allow a rational jury to determine beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant [was] guilty as charged.' United States v. Sullivan, 85 F.3d 743, 747 (1st Cir. 1996) (quoting United States v. Mena-Robles, 4 F.3d 1026, 1031 (1st Cir. 1993), cert. denied sub nom., __ U.S. __, 114 S. Ct. 1550 (1994)). 44 Drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of the verdict, the jury could have found the following about Royal's involvement in the EZ-EM conspiracy. Appellant Royal began working for EZ-EM in December 1988. At the beginning of 1989, he replaced Darryl Simmes as financial aid officer at EZ-EM a position paid by ATTS. At the time he held that position, financial aid officers were prohibited from engaging in recruitment activities. While serving as financial aid officer at EZ-EM Royal also engaged in recruitment activities. 45 For each student he enrolled in the ATTS program, Royal received a $100-$125 commission. For this commission, Royal would pay current students to bring in others to enroll in the program. Royal also paid students to enroll in the program. Royal was given a copy of the answers to provide students to help them complete the ten lessons required upon enrollment. Royal was aware that many of the students who signed up did not intend to complete the ATTS program, but merely signed up to receive the twenty dollars he paid them. Because of this, he often either gave students copies of the answer sheets or completed the students' tests himself. Royal gave at least two students copies of the answers to the tractor trailer correspondence course lessons, which were completed and sent to ATTS. Sometimes, he instructed students to change a few of the answers so that their test scores would not consistently equal one hundred. Although the first set of lessons were provided when a student signed up, thereafter the tests and sometimes the answers were mailed to students. 46 A student receiving federal financial aid for the ATTS program was required to have received no prior federal student loans. When signing up students for financial aid, Royal instructed those who had previous federal student loan debt not to list the debt on their financial aid applications. Upon Royal's arrival at EZ-EM Darryl Simmes explained to Royal the procedure by which student loan checks would be signed, which included paying others to assist the school in getting a reluctant student to sign a check. At times, Royal paid students twenty dollars to sign the loan checks. Royal would sometimes explain to students that, by signing the loan checks, they would be able to return the checks and eliminate the indebtedness. In addition, Royal obtained the endorsing signatures of students on the back of student loan checks that they did not know they were endorsing or would be liable for. The students often were not told when they entered the program that they would have to pay up front or that they would need a loan prior to moving on to the next level of the course work. Royal told one student that the check was being sent back to ATTS, but that EZ-EM needed his signature to send it back. Royal did not inform him that he would incur debt by signing the check. Two other students later received statements in the mail referring to a loan that they had unknowingly taken out. Royal accompanied recruiters whose role it was to talk the students into signing over the loan checks to the school. These recruiters, however, did not explain to the students that signing the loan checks would result in their incurring debt. Royal also witnessed Emmet Cotter, the owner of EZ-EM, using a flashlight and later a xerox machine to trace student signatures on various documents. At one point, Cotter also requested that Royal sign three checks totalling $30,000 so that Royal could be paid. 47 Royal signed up students for the tractor trailer course who did not have valid drivers' licenses. When this occurred, Royal would simply make up a driver's license number. Simmes explained to Royal that, when he recruited students, he should leave blank responses on the applications of students who stated that they did not have a driver's license or that they had previously obtained financial aid. Cotter explained to Royal how to make up a driver's license number, which Royal did when filling out applications for those students who did not possess a driver's license. He completed applications using false information, including misstating an applicant's criminal record. A. Conspiracy Charge 48 The evidence on this record sufficiently supports the jury's guilty verdict on the conspiracy charge. The conspiracy count charged Royal with engaging in a conspiracy [t]o knowingly devise and execute a scheme and artifice to obtain money by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises and, for the purpose of executing and attempting to execute the scheme, engaging in mail fraud. As will be discussed below, we find the evidence sufficient to convict Royal of mail fraud, the substantive offense charged in this conspiracy. 49 In order to prove a conspiracy under section 371, the government must prove the existence of a conspiracy, the defendant's knowledge of and voluntary participation in it, and the commission of an overt act in furtherance of the agreement. . . . The agreement need not be proved to have been explicit, and may be proved by circumstantial evidence. 50 United States v. Frankhauser, 80 F.3d 641, 653 (1st Cir. 1996) (citations omitted). To prove voluntary participation, the government must prove that the defendant had an intent to agree and an intent to effectuate the object of the conspiracy. See Piper, 35 F.3d at 615; see also Frankhauser, 80 F.3d at 653. To uphold a conviction, the court need not believe that no verdict other than a guilty verdict could sensibly be reached, but must only satisfy itself that the guilty verdict finds support in a plausible rendition of the record. United States v. Echeverri, 982 F.2d 675, 677 (1st Cir. 1993) (citations and internal quotations omitted). 51 The evidence here, taken together and drawing all reasonable inferences therefrom, supports Royal's conviction for conspiracy. The jury could have concluded that a conspiracy existed whereby the employees of EZ-EM defrauded the students whom they signed up for student loans and, in that process, utilized the United States' mails. Furthermore, the jury could have found that Royal intended to agree to engage in the conspiracy and intended to effectuate the object of the conspiracy. Based on the circumstantial evidence, including testimony that Royal engaged in acts in furtherance of the conspiracy, that he described to others his fraudulent acts in furtherance of the conspiracy, and gained financially from his own acts and those of his co-conspirators, the jury could conclude that Royal had an intent to agree with his co-conspirators. In addition, from the evidence that Royal paid students to enroll in the program, paid students to sign student loan checks, told students who signed loan checks that, by signing the check, they would not incur debt, forged student drivers' license numbers, and misstated students' past government loan history and criminal records, the jury could have concluded that he did so with an intent to defraud these students and used the mails in doing so. All of these served as acts in furtherance of the conspiracy to defraud. Here, Royal did not merely know of his fellow employees' illegal activities. See, e.g., United States v. Soto, 716 F.2d 989, 991-92 (2d Cir. 1983). Royal took steps necessary to effectuate the illegal conspiracy. Accordingly, Royal's conviction on the conspiracy count is supported by sufficient evidence. B. Mail Fraud 52 Second, Royal complains that his convictions on eight counts of mail fraud were not supported by sufficient evidence. To prove mail . . . fraud, the government must prove, beyond a reasonable doubt: (1) the defendant's knowing and willing participation in a scheme or artifice to defraud with specific intent to defraud, and (2) the use of the mails . . . in furtherance of the scheme. United States v. Sawyer, 85 F.3d 713, 723 (1st Cir. 1996). The defendant need not instigate the scheme so long as he willfully participates in it, with the knowledge of its fraudulent nature and with the intent to achieve its illicit objectives. United States v. Yefsky, 994 F.2d 885, 891-92 (1st Cir. 1993). A particular defendant need not have placed a specific item into the mails. It is enough that the use of the mails took place in the ordinary course of business, Pereira v. United States, 347 U.S. 1, 8 (1954), or was reasonably foreseeable as a result of the conspiracy participants' actions, Yefsky, 994 F.2d at 892. 53 Here, documents in which Royal included misstated or fraudulent information were sent to ATTS. Even if Royal did not place those documents into the mails, it follows that, in the ordinary course of business, admissions and federal student financial aid applications completed by Royal would be sent to ATTS, the information from those applications would be sent to the Department of Education, and information from the school would be sent to the students. It also follows that student loan checks would be sent through the mails. The jury could have reasonably found that it was reasonably foreseeable by Royal that the mails would be utilized to perpetrate this scheme to defraud. 54 The scheme to defraud in this case consisted of actions on the part of EZ-EM employees to convince students to sign up for the ATTS program, apply for federal student loans, loans for which they sometimes did not qualify, incur debt that they did not realize they would be obligated to repay, and to mislead some students to believe that they would not incur debt by endorsing the loan checks. As a result of these acts, ATTS paid commissions to EZ-EM. From these commissions, the employees of EZ-EM who perpetrated the acts to defraud the students were paid salaries or commissions. The jury could reasonably have found that these acts constituted a scheme to defraud the students EZ-EM enrolled in ATTS. 55 Royal contends that the government was required to prove that he had the specific intent to defraud the United States Department of Education. Although the indictment against Royal charges him with a scheme to defraud the United States Department of Education, and the students and prospective students of ATTS, the government was not required to prove that he intended to defraud the Department of Education specifically. The statute requires only that there be a scheme to defraud, see 18 U.S.C. Section(s) 1341, and we have required only a showing of a specific intent to defraud. United States v. Sawyer, 85 F.3d 713, 723 (1st Cir. 1996). The jury could have reasonably found that Royal had a specific intent to engage in a scheme to defraud the students. This is all that is required. Royal's conviction on the mail fraud counts is supported by sufficient evidence. Because the government met its burden by showing a scheme to defraud the students, we do not address whether it also proved that Royal had a specific intent to defraud the Department of Education.