Opinion ID: 748104
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sentence Enhancement for Charitable Misrepresentations

Text: 34 Grzesczuk also appeals the district court's decision to apply a two-level upward adjustment for falsely representing that SNN was a charitable organization. Under Sentencing Guideline § 2F1.1, a defendant is eligible for the enhancement [i]f the offense involved ... a misrepresentation that the defendant was acting on behalf of a charitable ... organization. U.S.S.G. § 2F1.1(b)(3). The Background Note explains: 35 Use of false pretenses involving charitable causes ... enhances the sentences of defendants who take advantage of victims' ... generosity and charitable motives ... [D]efendants who exploit victims' charitable impulses create particular social harm. 36 U.S.S.G. § 2F1.1, comment. (Background Note). 37 Tape-recordings of Grzesczuk's conversation with Agent Roberts, posing as a victim, revealed that Grzesczuk described SNN as a nonprofit foundation whose donations went directly to helping children involved in drugs and alcohol. Evidence in the record demonstrates that Grzesczuk knowingly told a number of other lies in order to flesh out his claim that SNN was a charitable organization. These intentional misrepresentations, as well as Grzesczuk's experience as a telemarketer, add up to sufficient circumstantial evidence that Grzesczuk knew SNN was not a charitable organization. The district court did not clearly err when it found that Grzesczuk merited this upward adjustment. 38