Opinion ID: 1033239
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: This matter comes on before this Court on an appeal from a judgment of conviction and sentence entered against appellant Matthew Kluger on June 4, 2012, in which Kluger challenges only his sentence. The government initiated this criminal case on April 5, 2011, when it filed a complaint against Kluger and Garrett Bauer in the District Court.1 The government charged Kluger and Bauer as conspirators in a three-man insider-trading scheme in which Kenneth Robinson was the third participant. The conspiracy spanned 17 years and, so far as is known, constituted the longest such scheme in United States history. On December 14, 2011, Kluger entered a guilty plea to a four-count information charging him with (1) conspiracy to commit securities fraud; (2) securities fraud; (3) conspiracy to commit money laundering; and (4) obstruction of justice, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371, 15 U.S.C. §§ 78j(b) and 78ff(a), and 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5; 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h), 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2), and 18 U.S.C. § 2. Kluger pled guilty pursuant to a plea agreement which did not include a stipulation as to his guidelines sentencing range. On June 4, 2012, the District Court sentenced Kluger to a 60-month custodial term on Count I and 144-month custodial terms on each of Counts II, III, and IV, all four terms to be served concurrently, for a total custodial term of 1 On December 8, 2011, Bauer entered a guilty plea. The District Court sentenced him on June 4, 2012, following which he filed an appeal but we have affirmed the judgment in his case. See United States v. Bauer, No. 12-2754. 3 144 months (12 years), a term thought to be the longest insidertrading sentence ever imposed. The sentence included a $400 special assessment, a three-year term of supervised release to follow the custodial term, and occupational restrictions relating to Kluger‟s employment in the securities industry. Following a separate hearing on the same day, the District Court sentenced Bauer to a 60-month custodial term on Count I and 108-month custodial terms on each of Counts II, III, and IV, all four terms to be served concurrently, for a total custodial term of 108 months (9 years). Bauer‟s sentence also included a $400 special assessment, a three-year term of supervised release, and occupational restrictions. On April 11, 2011, Robinson, the third conspirator who was the “middleman,” in the insider-trading scheme because Kluger passed inside information to him and he, in turn, relayed the information to Bauer who executed the trades, pled guilty to a three-count information for securities fraud. The District Court on June 5, 2011, sentenced Robinson to concurrent 27month custodial terms on all three counts for a total custodial term of 27 months to be followed by a three-year term of supervised release. The Court also included a $300 special assessment in Robinson‟s sentence. Robinson‟s sentence was far below his guidelines range of 70 to 87 months but the Court based it in part on a motion that the government filed pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 5K1.1 seeking a downwards departure from his guidelines sentencing range because Robinson was cooperating with the government in its investigation and prosecution of the conspiracy involved in this case. Robinson has not appealed from the sentence. 4 On June 13, 2012, Kluger filed a timely appeal, raising the following arguments. First, he challenges the District Court‟s calculation of his sentencing guidelines range. Second, he contends that the Court procedurally erred in imposing the sentence on him by (1) improperly denying him an evidentiary hearing prior to his sentencing; (2) failing to resolve his objections to the presentence investigation report; and (3) not ordering discovery of materials that the government turned over to the probation department for use in preparing the presentence report. Finally, he contends that the District Court imposed a procedurally and substantively unreasonable sentence.2