Opinion ID: 27879
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: yielded a total offense level of 18. Dennis’s

Text: Dennis worked as vice president for Shel- criminal history category was I, yielding a tering Arms Senior Services, Inc. (“SASS”), a guideline range of 27 to 33 months. nonprofit organization administering grants from various federal agencies. The Texas De- The PSR recommended an upward deparpartment of Housing and Community Affairs ture for two reasons. First, Robert Phillips, and the Harris County Community Develop- the president of SASS, explained that SASS ment Department contracted with SASS to sustained additional costs not included in the provide services for the elderly. Dennis or- original loss calculation: $160,000 in staff time dered and tracked equipment such as heaters assessing the total financial damage, $109,500 and air conditioners. in audit fees, and $11,413 for Dennis’s unapproved equipment storage fees. The PSR In April 1999, SASS learned of inventory found that these losses fell outside U.S.S.G. irregularities and began reviewing its purchas- § 2B1.1’s definition of loss and 18 U.S.C. es and installations. SASS discovered that § 3663A’s statutory definition of restitution. Dennis had contracted, submitted, and ap- Second, Phillips stated that SASS’s reputation proved payments to South Texas Supply Com- and fundraising suffered because of media repany (“STSC”). Dennis had manually de- ports of Dennis’s criminal conduct. SASS is livered payments to the vendor, which was not an agency of the United Way, and the media located at the address listed in the file. publicized the theft just as a United Way fundraiser began. Phillips averred that Dennis’s In 1994, Dennis had registered STSC as an crime harmed the United Way’s and SASS’s unincorporated business and listed himself as public image, lowering donations. the owner. SASS did not know that Dennis owned the vendor or had used STSC to pro- Dennis filed objections to the PSR, includvide heaters and air conditioners, in violation ing an objection to its recommendation for an of SASS’s conflict of interest policy. From upward departure. The district court, relying October 1994 through April 1995, Dennis had on a comment to § 2B1.1, departed upward submitted thirty-three fraudulent invoices paid because the guidelines did not adequately capto STSC, totaling $334,679.48. ture the tangible or intangible harms SASS had suffered. The court noted that the tangible, Dennis pleaded no contest to fifteen counts consequential harms totaled at least $281,000, of theft from an organization receiving federal but the court did not rely on the entire amount funds, 18 U.S.C. § 666, and twelve counts of to depart upward; it departed upward by two theft of public money, 18 U.S.C. § 641. Based levels for a total offense level of twenty and a on the 2000 sentencing guidelines, the Presen- corresponding guideline range of 33 to 41 2 months. The court sentenced Dennis to con- made to the district court. None of his initial current 41-month prison terms on each count, objections to the sentence informed the district three years of supervised release, a special court that relying on consequential, financial assessment of $2,600, and restitution of harms was problematic. We therefore $206,759.87. consider these arguments waived and review the sentence only for plain error.1