Court Opinion

ID: 9393967
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-05-11 19:00:46.138739+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:18:56.574050
License: Public Domain

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION
                                 File Name: 23a0223n.06

                                            No. 21-1643

                           UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                                FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT                                     FILED
                                                                                    May 11, 2023
                                                           )                    DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
                                                           )
         Plaintiff-Appellee                                )
                                                                   ON APPEAL FROM THE
                                                           )
 v.                                                                UNITED STATES DISTRICT
                                                           )
                                                                   COURT FOR THE EASTERN
                                                           )
 HAPPY ASKER,                                                      DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN
                                                           )
         Defendant-Appellant.                              )
                                                                                          OPINION
                                                           )
                                                           )

Before: SILER, KETHLEDGE, and WHITE, Circuit Judges.

       KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judge. By means of a criminal judgment entered in 2015, the

district court adjudicated Happy Asker guilty of tax fraud, sentenced him to 50 months in prison,

and ordered him to pay $2.5 million in restitution. Some three years later, Asker moved to reduce

his restitution amount to about $1.1 million. The district court denied the motion. We affirm.

                                                  I.

       Happy Asker founded Happy’s Pizza, a restaurant chain based in eastern Michigan. From

2004 to 2011, he orchestrated a scheme to underreport the income and payroll of various Happy’s

Pizza stores. A federal jury later convicted him of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United

States, three counts of filing a false tax return, 28 counts of aiding and assisting in the filing of a

false tax return, and one count of obstructing the administration of the internal revenue laws.

       At sentencing, the parties initially disputed the tax loss caused by Asker’s scheme.

That loss would dictate Asker’s base offense level under the guidelines, U.S.S.G. § 2T1.1, and

the restitution required under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3663A.
No. 21-1643, United States v. Asker

Asker argued that the tax loss was $1.4 million; the probation office calculated a loss of $5.8

million; and the government said the loss was $7.2 million. After a day’s testimony in an

evidentiary hearing, the parties told the district court that they were “prepared to stipulate to a loss

amount” of $2.5 million. The district court accepted the stipulation.

        During sentencing, however, the court asked what would happen if Asker’s amended

returns later showed that he owed more than $2.5 million in taxes:

        Court:                  You don’t anticipate that what is owed will be more than
                                2.5?

        Government:             It is hard to say at this point. It is going to depend—

        Court:                  What if it is? Do you anticipate that 2.5 precludes your client
                                from paying back the rest?

        Asker’s Counsel:        I wouldn’t think that if it comes out—I would not think that
                                this Court’s restitution award would be conclusive on the
                                IRS. In fact, if there was some civil basis to seek additional
                                penalties or interests, the IRS could do that.

                                I suppose if it turns out the number is less, we may probably
                                come back and apply to the Court for some relief from the
                                restitution amount.

        Government:             That is correct, Your Honor.

        Court:                  I just—my concern is that if it turns out to be more, I think
                                that is owed.

        Asker’s Counsel:        Yes, Ma’am. We don’t disagree with that.

        Court:                  Okay.

        The district court thereafter entered its criminal judgment, which specified a restitution

amount of $2.5 million. Asker appealed his convictions; we affirmed. United States v. Asker, 676

F. App’x 447 (6th Cir. 2017).

        Asker moved in 2018 to reduce his restitution amount, asserting that—based on his

amended tax returns—he had actually owed only about $1.1 million in taxes, an amount that he

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No. 21-1643, United States v. Asker

said the IRS did not contest. The government acknowledged that the IRS had chosen not to audit

Asker’s amended returns, but said that decision reflected the IRS’s allocation of its enforcement

resources, not any agreement with Asker’s numbers. More to the point, the government argued

that the district court lacked authority to amend Asker’s criminal judgment.

       For the next three years, Asker’s motion remained unadjudicated in the district court.

Finally, in October 2021—after Asker formally moved for a decision on his motion—the district

court agreed with the government’s argument and denied the motion to reduce Asker’s restitution

amount. This appeal followed.

                                                 II.

       We review de novo the district court’s conclusion that it lacked authority to amend Asker’s

restitution amount. United States v. Curry, 606 F.3d 323, 327 (6th Cir. 2010).

       All litigation must eventually come to an end; a court may revisit a criminal judgment that

has become final only when the court has some lawful authority to do so. Here, Asker cites two

sources that he thinks authorized the district court to amend his criminal judgment three years after

its entry. The first is Criminal Rule 36, which provides in full as follows:

       After giving any notice it considers appropriate, the court may at any time correct
       a clerical error in a judgment, order, or other part of the record, or correct an error
       in the record arising from oversight or omission.

Fed. R. Crim. P. 36.

       Asker’s argument as to Rule 36, specifically, is that, during his sentencing hearing, the

district court expressed an intention to lower Asker’s restitution amount if his amended tax returns

showed that he owed less than $2.5 million. That intention undisputedly appears nowhere in

Asker’s written judgment; his $2.5 million restitution amount, as stated therein, is unconditional.

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No. 21-1643, United States v. Asker

Asker says that omission was an “error” in the record arising from oversight or omission, which

the court may correct “at any time[.]” Fed. Crim. R. Proc. 36.

       Clerical errors, however, are a matter of keystrokes or transposition, “of the sort that a clerk

or [court reporter] might commit, mechanical in nature.” United States v. Robinson, 368 F.3d 653,

656 (6th Cir. 2004) (cleaned up). Errors arising from oversight or omission include discrepancies

between the oral sentence and the written judgment. United States v. Cofield, 233 F.3d 405, 407

(6th Cir. 2000). They do not include the omission of a district court’s “unexpressed sentencing

intention.” Robinson, 368 F.3d at 657. Here, one might infer from the hearing transcript that the

district court intended to consider redetermining the restitution amount based on any amended

returns to be filed. But that aim was neither clearly articulated nor fully developed. See United

States v. Werber, 51 F.3d 342, 347 (2d Cir. 1995). Thus, its omission from the written judgment

was not a “clerical error” or oversight, and Rule 36 does not authorize the amendment Asker seeks.

       Asker also argues that Mandatory Victims Restitution Act (the “Act”) afforded the district

court authority to reduce his restitution amount.          Specifically, he says that 18 U.S.C.

§§ 3663A(b)(1) and 3664(d)(5), read together, allow the relief he seeks. But § 3663A(b)(1)

outlines how restitution is calculated in the first place; it says nothing about changing that amount

later. And § 3664(d)(5) allows only victims to seek an increase in restitution. Hence these sections

provide no authority for a court to reduce the amount of restitution already ordered.

       Nor, contrary to Asker’s assertions, do our decisions in United States v. Vandeberg, 201

F.3d 805, 814 (6th Cir. 2000) or United States v. Phillips, 9 F.4th 382 (6th Cir. 2021) authorize

such a reduction. Asker quotes Vandeberg out of context, to the effect that the Act “permits

amendments to restitution orders to reflect changed circumstances[.]” 201 F.3d at 814. But that

dictum hardly authorizes courts to amend restitution awards as they see fit. Read in context, rather,

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No. 21-1643, United States v. Asker

that dictum describes only the Act’s operation within the terms of § 3664(d)(5), the provision

addressing victims. Nor has Asker explained how Phillips has any application here.

       Finally, Asker argues (for the first time on appeal) that the district court’s $2.5 million

restitution order violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on excessive fines. We set to one

side the question whether the Excessive Fines Clause applies to restitution orders. The guidelines

range for a fine for Asker’s many offenses far exceeded the $2.5 million Asker must pay; suffice

it to say that his restitution amount was not “grossly disproportional to the gravity of” his offenses

here. United States v. Bajakajian, 524 U.S. 321, 334 (1998).

                                          *       *       *

       The district court’s order is affirmed.

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