Opinion ID: 697244
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Plea and Sentencing

Text: 8 Pursuant to a plea agreement, West pleaded guilty on March 31, 1994 to an information charging him with one count of bank fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1344. The Government and West agreed that appellant would have an offense level of 15 and a criminal history category of I, yielding a projected range of 18-24 months imprisonment under the Guidelines. The presentence report agreed with this projection, but also recommended a two-point upward adjustment in West's offense level, under section 3B1.3 of the Guidelines, for abusing a position of private trust in a manner that significantly facilitated the commission and concealment of his offense. This adjustment raised the Guideline sentencing range to 24-30 months. 9 On June 21, 1994, the District Court, over West's objection, followed the recommendation of the presentence report and adjusted West's offense level upward under section 3B1.3. In imposing the abuse-of-trust enhancement, the District Court adopted the reasoning of the memorandum filed by the Government in support of the enhancement. See Sentencing Tr. (June 21, 1994) at 18, reprinted in Appendix (App.) 83. The Government first argued that West occupied a position of trust because he had acted as an agent for both OCSE and the Hecht Company, and that these entities had entrusted him with either large amounts of money (the OCSE checks) or information which gave him access to large amounts of money (the credit card receipts in the Hecht lockboxes). See Government's Opposition to Defendant's Memorandum of Points and Authorities in Support of Defendant's Objections to the Presentencing Report at 4-6, reprinted in App. 60-62. The Government then contended that West's position as president and sole employee of CNUSA significantly facilitated the commission and concealment of his criminal activity. On this point, the Government contended that West's position as president allowed him to obtain the point-of-sales terminal and to open the merchant account at First Premier. And because West had no supervisor, he purportedly was able to avoid detection of both the check and credit card schemes. See id. at 6-7, reprinted in App. 62-63. The District Court sentenced West to 30 months imprisonment, to be followed by a three-year term of supervised release. The court also ordered West to pay restitution in the amount of $125,045.28 ($123,164.48 to OCSE and $1880.80 to First Premier Bank). West began serving his sentence in June 1994.