Opinion ID: 4574855
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Substantial Financial Hardship

Text: Johnson’s final claim of error is that insufficient evidence existed to support the district court’s finding that five victims suffered “substantial financial hardship” under USSG § 2B1.1(b)(2)(B) so as to apply a four-level sentence enhancement. “In reviewing a district court’s application of the Sentencing Guidelines, this Court will ‘accept the findings of fact of the district court unless they are clearly erroneous . . . .” United States v. Moon, 513 F.3d 527, 539 (6th Cir. 2008) (citations omitted). “We review a district court’s legal conclusions regarding the Sentencing Guidelines de novo.” Id. at 540 (citation omitted). As Section 2B1.1(b)(2)(B) is a fairly recent addition to the Guidelines, Sixth Circuit precedent in its application is scarce, which is why the parties point to this court’s unpublished decision in United States v. Howder, 748 F. App’x 637 (6th Cir. 2018). Howder provides the necessary guidance for the application of Section 2B1.1(b)(2)(B) in this case. Id. at 642–43; see also United States v. Castaneda-Pozo, 877 F.3d 1249, 1252–53 (11th Cir. 2017) (“[W]e find here that the district court did not clearly err by finding that victims suffered substantial financial - 11 - Case No. 19-4000, United States v. Johnson hardship when they were made insecure in life’s basic necessities.”). Johnson does not refute the government’s assertion that five individuals under whose names she filed fraudulent tax returns either lost or were at great risk of losing, at least temporarily, vital government assistance because of Johnson’s actions.