Opinion ID: 1238399
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Concealing a prior crime

Text: The district court next employed U.S.S.G. § 5K2.9 to depart upward by two levels because Arhebamen falsely claimed that he had been born in Albany, Georgia on May 5, 1955 ... in order to conceal the commission of another offense i.e., his prior False Claim to U.S. Citizenship during the guilty plea before Judge Rosen. Section 5K2.9 states that [i]f the defendant committed the offense in order to facilitate or conceal the commission of another offense, the court may increase the sentence above the guideline range to reflect the actual seriousness of the defendant's conduct. Arhebamen argues that there is no evidence that he made false statements in order to conceal the commission of another offense, and that the consistent use of the O'Georgia alias for such a long period suggests a lack of such a purpose. The government responds by pointing out that Arhebamen's consistency in using his false identity in fact emphasizes his criminal purpose, noting that he did not accidentally adopt the identity of McMaine O'Georgia; rather, it was part of a deliberate and sophisticated plan for the purpose of conceal[ing] his true identity. Arhebamen has been subject to removal from the United States since the expiration of his visitor's visa in the late 1970s. The district court therefore reasonably concluded that Arhebamen did not call himself O'Georgia for two decades simply because he preferred the name, but rather because he wished to avoid removal from the United States. No abuse of discretion is apparent in the district court's determination that each time Arhebamen gave the name O'Georgiato the court, the Probation Office, or othershe did so at least in part for the criminal purpose of concealing his past commissions of identity fraud.