Opinion ID: 2491
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: MVRA or VWPA?

Text: Under the MVRA, restitution is mandatory for certain crimes, such as an offense against property under this title... including any offense committed by fraud or deceit. 18 U.S.C. § 3663A(c)(1)(A)(ii). A district court must order restitution where an identifiable victim or victims has suffered a ... pecuniary loss. Id. § 3663A(c)(1)(B). In contrast to the MVRA, however, restitution under the VWPA is discretionary. The VWPA provides that [t]he court, when sentencing a defendant convicted of [any] offense under this title ..., may order ... that the defendant make restitution to any victim of such offense. 18 U.S.C. § 3663(a)(1)(A) (emphasis added). The VWPA requires sentencing courts to consider the amount of the loss sustained by the victim as a result of the offense, the defendant's financial resources, the financial needs and earning ability of the defendant and the defendant's dependents, and other factors the court deems appropriate. See id. § 3663(a)(1)(B)(i) (I-II); United States v. Ben Zvi, 242 F.3d 89, 99 (2d Cir.2001). While the district court must review these statutory factors, detailed factual findings for each factor are not required. See United States v. Stevens, 211 F.3d 1, 6 (2d Cir.2000). Aside from the aforementioned differences, the provisions of the VWPA and the MVRA are nearly identical in authorizing an award of restitution. United States v. Serawop, 505 F.3d 1112, 1118 (10th Cir.2007) (internal quotation marks and alteration omitted). In this case, the district court determined that Battista's offense of conviction  conspiracy to transmit wagering information  was covered under the MVRA, reasoning that the phrase `committed by fraud or deceit' appears to refer to the way in which a particular offense was carried out rather than its elements. 570 F.Supp.2d at 421. Although Battista's criminal offense (unlike the other co-conspirators' offenses of conviction, i.e., wire fraud) does not contain fraud or deceit as one of its elements, the government argues that the crime nevertheless falls within the scope of the MVRA because it was executed in a fraudulent manner. Specifically, the government contends that the conduct underlying the wagering conviction was Battista's dealings with Donaghy and Martino as part of a scheme to defraud the NBA of Donaghy's honest services by using NBA insider information to place wagers on NBA games. The district court generally agreed, observing that the success of Battista's wagering was dependent on Donaghy's fraudulent conduct. Id. In support of its position, the government points to statements made by Battista during his plea allocution and the factual allegations set forth in the indictment, asserting that they demonstrate that Battista's transmittal of wagering information was intertwined with the fraudulent gambling scheme. Battista's co-conspirators, Donaghy and Martino, never disputed before the district court the applicability of the MVRA to the offense for which they pleaded guilty  conspiracy to commit wire fraud  because that offense must, by definition, be committed by fraud or deceit. We need not decide whether the district court properly ordered Battista to pay restitution under the MVRA  which would require us to answer the open question of whether the language committed by fraud or deceit in Section 3663A(c)(1)(A)(ii) refers to the elements of an offense or the manner in which the defendant commits the offense  because we hold that restitution was properly imposed pursuant to the VWPA. [3] Cf. United States v. Murillo-Bejerano (In re Rendon Galvis), 564 F.3d 170, 175 (2d Cir.2009) (declining to decide whether the term crime victim under the Crime Victims' Rights Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3771, should be defined according to the elements of the crime or offense of conviction). Before turning to the district court's analysis of the statutory factors set forth in the VWPA, however, we must first determine whether the NBA is a victim of Battista's offense of conviction under the VWPA.