Opinion ID: 77852
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Direct Harm to the Victims

Text: Foley's argument that the government did not prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the alleged victims were directly harmed by Foley's conduct also fails. Foley argues that not every investor in Global necessarily was harmed. The government responds that all investors, other than those whose money was returned to them in full, were fraud victims nonetheless because Foley's fraud scheme jeopardized their investment and the entire Global enterprise was fraudulent. We agree with the government that there is substantial evidence that Foley harmed all investors. The district court did not clearly err when it found that all the investors identified by the government were directly harmed by Foley's conduct. The government deducted the returns and repayments that victims received from their investments from the restitution amount. See 18 U.S.C. § 3663A(b)(1)(B). Even if some investors who did not share machines were included in the restitution calculation, it is undisputed that Foley operated a scheme in which the money invested by later investors was used to pay earlier investors. That scheme deceived all investors. Although some investors entered the shared location program knowingly, they too were defrauded when that program was not executed as promised. Substantial evidence supports the finding of the district court, and we are not left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. Anderson v. City of Bessemer City, N.C., 470 U.S. 564, 573, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 1511, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985).