Opinion ID: 218749
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Laudermill's Separate Contentions

Text: Laudermill also contends that her sentence was procedurally unreasonable for three reasons specific to her. First, she argues that the district court erred by applying the 2001 version of the sentencing guidelines. According to Laudermill, the court should have applied the 2000 version of the guidelines because the last conduct for which she was convicted occurred no later than August of 2001. That is not so. Laudermill was convicted of a conspiracy that extended well beyond the effective date of the 2001 edition of the guidelines. See U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3(a)(1)(B). As the presentence report noted, even some of Laudermill's own conduct in furtherance of the conspiracy occurred after August 2001. The district court applied the correct version of the guidelines. Second, Laudermill claims that her guidelines range was improperly calculated because the loss amount attributed to her should not have exceeded $200,000. We disagree. The district court properly applied a 20-level adjustment for a loss of more than $7,000,000 but less than $20,000,000 because Laudermill was accountable for a loss of $9,027,933 due to her involvement in the conspiracy. U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(1)(K) (2001); U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3. Finally, Laudermill argues that the district court should not have applied an enhancement for money laundering under § 2S1.1 because she had no intent to conceal her share of the proceeds from the real estate closings. There was evidence that Laudermill intentionally concealed the source of her proceeds. The sentencing court could, and apparently did, find she was aware that payments to straw buyers and recruiters such as herself were concealed from the lenders through side deals between Hill and the straw buyers. Therefore, a two-level enhancement was appropriate based on her conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(B)(i). See U.S.S.G. § 2S1.1(b)(2)(B) (2001). Even if there were no evidence that Laudermill intended to conceal the money she made from the fraudulent transactions, the enhancement under § 2S1.1(b)(2)(B) would still have been appropriate because she was convicted under 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(A)(ii) for money laundering with the intent to promote the illegal enterprise. Laudermill has not convinced us that there was any procedural error in the imposition of her sentence.