Opinion ID: 171960
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sufficiency of the Evidence of Wire Fraud

Text: We review the evidence de novo to determine whether a reasonable jury, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, could find Mrs. Caldwell guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. See United States v. Parker, 553 F.3d 1309, 1316 (10th Cir. 2009). “To convict a defendant of wire fraud, the government must prove three elements: (1) the defendant participated in a scheme to defraud; (2) the defendant intended to defraud; and (3) a use of an interstate wire in furtherance of the fraudulent scheme.” United States v. Turner, 551 F.3d 657, 664 (7th Cir. 2008). The wire communication alleged in the count against Mrs. Caldwell was the wire transfer of $683,954.50 in loan money from the mortgage lender, Long Beach Mortgage Company, to the title company handling the closing. Mrs. Caldwell does not challenge the existence of a fraudulent scheme, nor does she dispute that the wire transfer furthered the scheme. Thus, we are concerned only with (1) her participation (did she assist the scheme?), and (2) her knowledge (if she did assist, did she know that what she was assisting was a fraud?). Ironically, the best evidence of Mrs. Caldwell’s assistance in the Balang transaction was her own testimony. She told the jury that Access Marketing -8- earned the $10,000 “marketing service” fee by referring Mr. Jew to the eventual down-payment lender. According to Mrs. Caldwell, when Mr. Jew asked her whether Access Marketing could lend $120,000 to Balang, she told him that the sum was too large for her but recommended ProSpect Marketing, which ultimately provided the loan. Even though her testimony was not introduced in the government’s case, this evidence can be used to support the verdict. See United States v. Delgado-Uribe, 363 F.3d 1077, 1082 (10th Cir. 2004) (“If a defendant chooses to present additional evidence [after a motion for judgment of acquittal is denied], the defendant waives the right to have the sufficiency of the evidence tested by the government’s case alone and we review the entire record on appeal.” (internal quotation marks omitted)); cf. Fed. R. Crim. P. 29(b) (if a motion for judgment of acquittal is made at the end of the government’s case, but the court reserves its decision, “it must decide the motion on the basis of the evidence at the time the ruling was reserved”). This was not, however, the government’s theory of its case against Mrs. Caldwell. Indeed, Mr. Jew, who was a key witness for the government, testified that Mrs. Caldwell said nothing about ProSpect Marketing and that he contacted that company on his own. To provide a coherent discussion of the sufficiency of the evidence on the wire-fraud charge, we will analyze the evidence from the government’s perspective, which, like Mrs. Caldwell’s version, supports a finding of her participation in the scheme, but which in addition strongly supports a finding of -9- her fraudulent intent. The government’s theory was that Mrs. Caldwell assisted the scheme by supplying the means to channel some of the mortgage-loan proceeds to those participating in the scheme. The closing statement for the Balang purchase listed a $10,000 “marketing service” fee to Access Marketing. Add. to Br. of Pl.-Aplee. (Gayle Caldwell) at 228. At closing Access Marketing submitted an invoice for that amount and it was paid out of the loan proceeds. Access Marketing then disbursed $3,500 to Mrs. Jew and $4,500 to Mr. Caldwell, leaving $2,000 in the Access Marketing account. Thus, Mrs. Jew received 35% of the money, and the Caldwells jointly received the other 65%. (This 65%/35% division was the same split of United Lending’s mortgage-broker fee that Mr. Caldwell was to receive when he obtained a client and acted as loan officer.) According to Mr. Jew, it was necessary that the $10,000 be funneled through Access Marketing because United Lending was already slated to receive $32,690 for its commission in brokering the Balang transaction, the maximum that the company could receive under lending guidelines. Consequently, if any additional money were to be paid to the Caldwells and Mr. and Mrs. Jew, it had to be characterized as something other than a brokerage commission. Hence, the “marketing service” fee to Access Marketing. This evidence was sufficient for the jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Mrs. Caldwell assisted in the scheme by serving as a conduit of loan proceeds to the scheme participants. -10- That leaves the question whether there was sufficient evidence that Mrs. Caldwell had the requisite fraudulent intent—that is, whether she participated with the knowledge that she was furthering a fraudulent scheme. In our view, the question is not a close one. To begin with, there is evidence that Access Marketing received the $10,000 at closing without having performed any services. Although Mrs. Caldwell testified that she earned the $10,000 by referring Mr. Jew to the down-payment lender, he denied that she did, and Mrs. Caldwell did not suggest that Access Marketing had earned the $10,000 in any other fashion. (It is also interesting to note that this $10,000 “fee” exceeded the $8,050 commission earned by the company that actually provided the $120,000 down-payment loan.) In legitimate commercial transactions, people are not ordinarily paid large sums for trivial efforts. A jury could reasonably infer that someone who receives $10,000, despite having done nothing to earn it, likely knows that something crooked is afoot. See United States v. Chavez-Marquez, 66 F.3d 259, 262 (10th Cir. 1995) (large sum ($4,000) paid to defendant for relatively minimal effort (driving car from El Paso to Albuquerque) supported inference that defendant knew that he was transporting contraband). Further supporting an inference of Mrs. Caldwell’s knowledge is her participation in prior fraudulent mortgage loans. With respect to her own home mortgage, she (1) signed a purchase agreement overstating the price of her home; -11- (2) obtained a down-payment loan, yet denied doing so on her loan application; and (3) received over $12,000 in loan proceeds for her own purposes. She was certainly no stranger to the sort of fraud employed in the Balang transaction. And her participation in the Lewis loan shows that she was also familiar with using Access Marketing as a conduit to conceal the true destination of loan proceeds. At the Lewis closing Access Marketing received more than $113,000, which she then disbursed to multiple parties, including the purchaser, her husband, and Mr. and Mrs. Jew. Moreover, a jury could infer that she had learned from her husband the fraudulent nature of the mortgage-loan transaction. After all, their involvement in mortgage lending was a joint affair in several respects. She had bought Access Marketing from Mr. Caldwell’s bosses, Mr. and Mrs. Jew; Access Marketing had made down-payment loans to customers for whom Mr. Caldwell was the loan officer; and Mr. Caldwell had even performed tasks for Access Marketing, such as endorsing a check. See generally Charles Caldwell, No. 07-6251 (discussing sufficiency of the evidence of Mr. Caldwell’s knowledge of the fraudulent scheme). Finally, the jury could infer Mrs. Caldwell’s guilty knowledge if they disbelieved her exculpatory testimony. For example, to explain Access Marketing’s receipt of $10,000, she testified that she had referred Mr. Jew to Balang’s down-payment lender, but the jury could have credited Mr. Jew’s denial -12- that she made the referral. “[F]alse exculpatory statements . . . are admissible to prove circumstantially consciousness of guilt or unlawful intent.” United States v. Davis, 437 F.3d 989, 996 (10th Cir. 2006) (internal quotation marks omitted). Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, we hold that the jury had ample grounds to find that Mrs. Caldwell had the requisite intent to defraud.