Opinion ID: 1198385
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Bogdan Ganescu and Gianina Simon

Text: On September 4, 2007, Ganescu and Simon pled guilty, without plea agreements, to several wire fraud counts, 18 U.S.C. § 1343, and two counts of receipt of stolen funds, 18 U.S.C. § 2315. In their plea declarations, Ganescu and Simon admitted to participating in a scheme to defraud users of Internet auction sites such as eBay, and to obtaining money by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses. They admitted that not later than August 2004, they learned about the scheme and how it worked from codefendant Gabriel Constantin. They also admitted that in order to participate in the scheme, they obtained and used a series of alias identification documents that falsely identified them as the persons to whom the victims should send their money and that they ultimately received the victims' funds from Western Union agents. The Government's Version of the Offense (Government's Version), which was attached to the defendants' PSRs, indicated that photographs obtained during the investigation of the scheme demonstrated Ganescu's and Simon's close association with several codefendants, including Constantin, Ianc, Bledea, and Rizescu. The photos included pictures of Ganescu and Simon at Rizescu's staged wedding, which was part of a fraudulent application for permanent United States residency. Also according to the Government's Version, phone records showed frequent call activity between Ganescu's and Simon's cell phones and those of Constantin, Ianc, and Bledea. The Government's Version stated that Simon used the same attorney that Ianc and Bledea used following their arrests on charges arising out of the scheme to defraud. On appeal, Ganescu and Simon do not dispute the accuracy of these factual assertions, but argue about what inferences may reasonably be drawn from them. Ganescu admitted in his plea declaration that between approximately October 2004 and June 2005, he received wire transfers of fraud proceeds of approximately $174,000 from at least 90 victims of the scheme. (The government later learned that his participation continued into December 2006 and that he received fraud proceeds from approximately 129 victims.) Simon admitted in her plea declaration that between approximately September 2004 and August 2005, she received wire transfers of fraud proceeds of approximately $63,000 from at least 29 victims. Ganescu and Simon also admitted that they retained a portion of the fraud proceeds for themselves and caused the remainder more than $126,000to be transmitted to the foreign co-schemers in Romania. Each admitted an awareness that the other was participating in the scheme and receiving fraud proceeds from additional victims. They also admitted to sharing common sources of false identification documents between themselves and with several codefendants: Ianc, Salem, and an individual identified as SB. Ganescu admitted to sharing common sources with Bledea and Ladislau as well. According to the Government's Version, during the time that Ganescu and Simon participated in the scheme, more than 2000 victims suffered losses in excess of $5.4 million. The government asserted that Ganescu received wire transfers of fraud proceeds in amounts totaling about $239,000 and that together Ganescu and Simon received about $313,000 from approximately 163 victims. The principal issue at Ganescu and Simon's sentencing hearing was whether the conduct of other codefendants was reasonably foreseeable to Ganescu and Simon for purposes of the loss amount and number of victims for which they should be held accountable as relevant conduct under U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3(a)(1)(B). The government argued that much of the conduct of others involved in the scheme was foreseeable to Ganescu and Simon based on their close relationship with significant participants in the scheme such as Ianc and Constantin. The government asserted that a conservative estimate of the loss foreseeable to Ganescu and Simon would be the losses caused during the time they participated in the scheme and traceable to Ganescu, Simon, and the co-schemers with whom they were most closely associated, namely Constantin, Bledea, Ianc, Individual EM, and Cristian Bentan. According to the government's spreadsheet detailing Western Union transactions, the transactions received directly by these co-schemers totaled $1,176,967.81 and represented losses to approximately 500 victims of the scheme. The district court identified the crux of the matter as whether the actions of co-schemers Ianc, Constantin, Bledea, and EM were reasonably foreseeable to Simon and Ganescu. The court found by a preponderance of the evidence that the conduct of Ianc, Constantin, Bledea, and EM was reasonably foreseeable to Ganescu. It found that the conduct of Ganescu, Ianc, Constantin, Bledea and EM was reasonably foreseeable to Simon. These findings led the court to find a loss amount of $1,176,967.81 and a total number of victims in excess of 250, with a corresponding sixteen-level increase to Ganescu's and Simon's base offense level under U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(1)(I) and a six-level increase under § 2B1.1(b)(2)(C). [3] Ganescu and Simon had an identical Guidelines range of 78 to 97 months. The district court sentenced Ganescu to a within-Guidelines sentence of 78 months and ordered him to pay $229,000 in restitution. After considering the § 3553(a) factors, including Simon's overall culpability, and finding that she had been deterred and recidivism was not a factor in her case, the court sentenced Simon to a below-Guidelines sentence of 52 months. The court also ordered her to pay $62,000 in restitution.