Opinion ID: 4123854
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Date of Entry into Tax-Fraud Conspiracy

Text: Pielsticker disputes the district court’s finding that the IRS suffered $9,562,121.95 in loss for Count 1’s tax-fraud conspiracy.8 He argues that this amount lacks evidentiary support. Similar to his bank-fraud loss argument, Pielsticker specifically challenges the district court’s finding that he entered the tax-fraud conspiracy from its outset. Here, too, Pielsticker asserts that he entered the tax-fraud conspiracy late, and thus is responsible for only a portion of the total tax-fraud loss. To find that Pielsticker entered the tax-fraud conspiracy from the outset, the district court relied on Moore’s testimony from the sentencing hearing. Pielsticker argues that Moore’s testimony was insufficient to establish that Pielsticker knowingly participated in the tax-fraud conspiracy from the outset. “A defendant convicted of conspiracy is accountable for reasonably foreseeable conduct in furtherance of the jointly undertaken criminal activity.” United States v. Dazey, 403 F.3d 1147, 1176 (10th Cir. 2005). The district court must make “particularized findings about, the scope of the specific agreement the individual defendant joined in relation to the conspiracy as a whole.” Id. (quoting United States v. Melton, 131 F.3d 1400, 1404 (10th Cir. 1997)). A defendant is not accountable for the conduct of coconspirators “prior to the defendant joining the 8 Pielsticker does not challenge the tax-loss amount for Count 2’s individual tax-fraud, which was $1,050,956. 16 conspiracy, even if the defendant knows of that conduct.” Id. (quoting USSG § 1B1.3, cmt. n.2). For sentencing purposes, the government’s burden of proof is by a preponderance of the evidence. United States v. Cook, 550 F.3d 1292, 1294-95 (10th Cir. 2008). The evidence was sufficient to establish that Pielsticker participated in the taxfraud conspiracy from the outset. At Pielsticker’s sentencing, Moore testified that he conversed daily with Pielsticker about Arrow’s cash-flow problems and that Pielsticker decided the order in which to pay Arrow’s creditors. Moore also testified that Pielsticker knew from the outset (January 2009) that Arrow was withholding payroll taxes from its employees’ wages without remitting these withholdings to the IRS, yet Pielsticker still directed Arrow to pay his personal expenses ahead of the IRS. As mentioned above, the district court did not err in finding Moore credible. Thus, the record supports the district court’s finding that Pielsticker entered the taxfraud conspiracy from its outset.