Opinion ID: 764420
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Barrett's position

Text: 8 Barrett argues first that the sentencing enhancement should not apply because his job merely involved sales rather than some fiduciary position within the financial operations of F. Schumacher. Barrett states that he lacked the requisite discretionary authority because he could not issue checks independently but instead had to request them from F. Schumacher's accounting department like any other company employee. Appellant incorrectly limits Section 3B1.3 enhancements to fiduciaries because the guideline is not that narrow. For example, the enhancement has applied to defendants who were police officers, security guards, babysitters, custodians, and truck drivers. See Castagnet, 936 F.2d at 60-62 (citing cases). The common thread in these cases is the extent to which the position provides the freedom to commit a difficult-to-detect wrong rather than a legally defined duty such as fiduciary duty. Id. at 61-62 (quoting United States v. Hill, 915 F.2d 502, 506 (9th Cir.1990)). 9 Moreover, Barrett's statement to authorities belies his present contention that he lacked discretionary authority at F. Schumacher to facilitate the commission and concealment of his crime. There is no question that Barrett was a higher-level manager in the company with discretionary authority, and he stated that he supervised 40 people nationwide, traveled internationally in connection with his job, and earned $160,000 annually. Importantly, even though Barrett had to request checks from the accounting department, his position at F. Schumacher facilitated his crime because he stated that his check requests were not questioned because he was the Vice President of Sales and had the authority to authorize any check on any open account. Statement of Def. of 12/12/96 at 3. Barrett's position also gave him access to account records and sales reports that he used to create false invoices for the check requests. Barrett was in a position with freedom to commit a wrong so difficult to detect that a company audit uncovered less than half of the stolen amount of money. 10 Contrary to Barrett's argument, his is not a case like United States v. Williams, where the Sixth Circuit held that the enhancement did not apply to an agency executive director who embezzled government funds because she committed the same crime while she was a regular, non-supervisory employee. See United States v. Williams, 993 F.2d 1224, 1228 (6th Cir.1993). By Barrett's own admission, accounting department employees did not question his check requests due to his position in the company. The facts of this case easily fall within established Second Circuit precedent. See United States v. Valenti, 60 F.3d 941, 947 (2d Cir.1995) (holding that enhancement applied to defendant who embezzled funds from an organization of which he was treasurer because he was responsible for financial records, had sole possession of checkbook and had authority to issue checks); see also United States v. Melendez, 41 F.3d 797, 799 (2d Cir.1994) (holding that enhancement applied where defendant was one of several people with access to large amounts of cash without tight accounting controls). Therefore, we conclude that Barrett's position at F. Schumacher was one of private trust.