Opinion ID: 749900
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Upward Departure for Benefit of Bribe

Text: 61 Sentencing Guideline § 2C1.1(b)(2)(A) provides: 62 If the value of the payment, the benefit received or to be received in return for the payment, or the loss to the government from the offense, whichever is greatest, exceeded $2,000, increase [the base offense level] by the corresponding number of levels from the table in § 2F1.1 (Fraud and Deceit). 63 U.S.S.G. § 2C1.1(b)(2)(A). The district court, finding that the defendant did not receive any benefit, nor did he intend to receive a benefit, used the value of the payment, $4,000, to impose a one-level increase in the base offense level. The Government makes two closely-related arguments. First, the Government suggests that the district court should have considered the benefit to Gas City. Second, the Government argues that the district court made an error of law in holding that the defendant must have personally received the benefit in order to merit an upward departure. 64 The Government first argues that the benefit that accrued to Gas City should be considered in the calculation of benefit. Agostino counters that the Sentencing Guidelines did not contemplate benefits accruing to third parties in factual situations like the present case. Agostino cites to the background section of U.S.S.G. § 2C1.1, which he claims is very telling as to what the Guideline Commission had in mind. In discussing whether the value of the bribe itself should be deducted from the benefit received, the background section states, for deterrence purposes, the punishment should be commensurate with the gain to the payer or the recipient of the bribe, whichever is higher. U.S.S.G. § 2C1.1, comment. (backg'd) (emphasis added). Accordingly, the defense asserts that for the purpose of the enhancement, the court can only look to the benefits to the payer or the recipient. Since Gas City is neither a payer nor a recipient, the defense argues, the court cannot consider any benefits accruing to it. 65 There is some precedent suggesting that the sentencing court may consider benefits flowing to third parties in determining benefit/loss under U.S.S.G. § 2C1.1. See United States v. Pretty, 98 F.3d 1213 (10th Cir.1996), cert. denied --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 2436, 138 L.Ed.2d 197 (1997); see also United States v. Muldoon, 931 F.2d 282 (4th Cir.1991) (by implication). 4 However, these cases are factually distinguishable from the present case. In Pretty, the defendants, Pretty and Whitehead, were charged with engaging in a bribery scheme in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 666, as well as conspiring to engage in this scheme in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. See id. at 1216. The jury convicted the defendants on all charges in the indictment. See id. at 1217. One of the conspirators, Kuhse, was not before the court in the case. In determining the appropriate base level, the sentencing court considered the benefit to Kuhse, a conspirator. See id. at 1222. The court found that the relevant question was whether the amount received by Kuhse was reasonably foreseeable to the defendants, citing U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3(a)(1)(B). See id. 66 Sentencing Guideline § 1B1.3(a)(1)(B) states that specific offense characteristicsshall be determined on the basis of the following: 67 .... 68 in the case of a jointly undertaken criminal activity (a criminal plan, scheme, endeavor, or enterprise undertaken by the defendant in concert with others, whether or not charged as a conspiracy), all reasonably foreseeable acts and omissions of others in furtherance of the jointly undertaken criminal activity, that occurred during the commission of the offense of conviction, in preparation for that offense, or in the course of attempting to avoid detection or responsibility for that offense. 69 This section clearly requires a jointly undertaken criminal activity, although it matters not whether such activity is formally charged as a conspiracy. This requirement makes the section inapplicable to Agostino. Unlike Pretty, in the case before us the Government did not provide evidence that Agostino was part of a jointly undertaken criminal activity. The only evidence to suggest such an endeavor is Goetz's testimony that Agostino told him the $4,000 was from Len McEnery, Gas City's General Manager. Agostino contradicted this testimony in asserting that the money was his private money from a home equity line-of-credit. There is no additional evidence on the question of whether Agostino was involved in a jointly undertaken criminal activity, therefore this section and the precedent applying it is irrelevant. 5 70 Other circuits have allowed sentencing courts to consider benefits flowing to organizations where the defendant is shown to be an agent of such organization. See United States v. Dijan, 37 F.3d 398 (8th Cir.1994) (defendant was payer; court used benefit to payer-owned corporation, in whose interest payer acted); United States v. Jackson, 876 F.Supp. 1208 (D.Kan.1994) (payer-defendants were high-level employees of hospital; court found government failed to meet burden in proving benefit to hospital), aff'd sub nom. United States v. Martinez, 76 F.3d 1145 (10th Cir.1996). In the instant case, the Government asks the court to enhance the defendant-payer's base level based on benefits to an unrelated third party. If the Government had shown that Agostino acted as Gas City's agent in this transaction, these cases may be relevant. However, as above, the only evidence on that count is Goetz's testimony that when prodded, Agostino told him the $4,000 was from Len McEnery of Gas City. Agostino contradicts this claim by asserting that the money was his own that he kept in his home. Thus, this theory fails as well. In sum, the precedent establishes that benefits to third parties may be considered in certain factual circumstances, but the Government did not establish the necessary circumstances in this case. 71 The flip-side of the Government's argument that the benefits to Gas City should have been considered is its argument that the district court erred as a matter of law in holding that the defendant must have personally benefitted in order to merit an enhancement. It is true that some of our cases establish the proposition that the defendant need not receive the benefit in order to have his sentence enhanced. See United States v. Muhammad, 120 F.3d 688 (7th Cir.1997) (holding that benefit to payer may be considered in enhancing sentence of defendant-payee). The Government's contention that the district court erred as a matter of law is unpersuasive, however, as it is based on an erroneous interpretation of the reach of the conclusion embodied in the district court's sentencing memorandum. Although the district court did not explicitly analyze the third party question, its statement of the law as it relates to the facts of this case was correct. In the present case, where there is no established link between the defendant and the third party that received the benefit, the appropriate measure of the benefit is the amount of personal benefit to the defendant. Because the Government did not establish that Agostino received a benefit, the district court correctly declined to use any benefit as the measure for enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2C1.1(b)(2)(A). We therefore find that under the unique facts of this case, the district court did not err in using the value of the bribe, and not the value of the benefit to Gas City, to determine the upward enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2C1.1(b)(2)(A).