Court Opinion

ID: 9492496
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:42:33.274394+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:20.146856
License: Public Domain

NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I concur in Parts I through VI and VILA. I respectfully dissent from Part VII.B.
My disagreement is with the majority’s interpretation of U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1 where it measures the “loss” for sentencing purposes by the value of goods to the victim. WTiile the majority states categorically that § 2B1.1 is “concerned with the ‘loss’ to the victim,” supra at 20 (emphasis added), the Sentencing Guideline and the Application Note to it permit no such interpretation, and for good reason. By misinterpreting the Guideline, the majority’s opinion improperly reduces the sentence required for the offense for which the defendant was convicted.
Ruhe was convicted of dealing in stolen property having a value greater than $5,000 in interstate commerce. See 18 U.S.C. § 2314. The applicable Sentencing Guideline for that offense reads in part, “If the loss exceeds $100, increase the offense level as follows: [a chart of loss values and corresponding sentencing enhancements then follows].” U.S.S.G. § 2Bl.l(b)(l) (emphasis added). The Application Note defines “loss” to mean “the value of the property taken.” It goes on to say: “Ordinarily, when property is taken or destroyed the loss is the fair market value of the particular property at issue. Where the market value is difficult to ascertain or inadequate to measure harm to the victim, the court may measure loss in some other way, such as reasonable replacement cost to the victim.” U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1, comment. (n.2) (emphasis added). This comment makes it clear that the general rule for valuing loss requires the court to de*393termine the market value of the stolen property. Only where market value is difficult to ascertain or where the market value understates the harm to the victim is a court permitted to use an alternative valuation method. A court is not permitted to ignore the mandated fair market valuation method simply to avoid being “mean-spirited” toward the criminals who trafficked in stolen property. See supra at 391. Where dealers buy and sell stolen property, there can be no difficulty determining the market value of the property, and there generally would be no claim that the market value understates the harm to victims of the defendants’ trafficking offense, such as the purchasers of the stolen goods or their competitors. While theft has one victim, the dealing in stolen property has others. But regardless of the value of stolen goods “to the victim,” when they have value in the marketplace, as established by multiple transactions among dealers engaging in stolen property, the Guideline necessarily intends that the sentencing be measured by that “fair market value.”
The majority’s reliance on United States v. Chatterji, 46 F.3d 1336 (4th Cir.1995), is misplaced as Chatterji did not deal with any theft of or dealing m stolen goods. Rather, in Chatterji, the defendant’s fraud consisted of conducting a drug test improperly in an effort to obtain quick FDA approval of one drug and misleading the FDA as to a formula change of another drug product. See id. at 1338-39. Although there was fraud, nothing was taken, and thus there was no “loss” under the Sentencing Guidelines. Even if one were to contend that FDA approval was “stolen,” FDA approval cannot be bought or sold, even by the FDA, and thus has no market value. In contrast, the defendant was convicted of trafficking in stolen airplane parts. Something was stolen, sold, and resold, providing a readily ascertainable value. This case, while not at all like Chatterji, is much more like United States v. Barnes, 116 F.3d 473, 1997 WL 337454 (4th Cir.1997) (unpublished), where we held that the proper valuation of the goods stolen by the defendants was the amount of money that they had received for the goods (i.e. the market value) even though it appeared that the goods had been worth less to the goods’ true owner.
I would further note that the absence of any suggestion in the Guidelines and Application Notes that loss valuation is to be limited could only be a deliberate decision by the Sentencing Commission. The crime in the case before us was indeed not even a theft crime but a crime for dealing in interstate commerce in stolen goods. See 18 U.S.C. § 2314. While the victim of the original theft was Pratt & Whitney, the parties to the transactions which were made criminal by § 2314 were Ruhe and Byard, and their victims were subsequent purchasers and customers, as well as competitors in the market. The essence of this crime is dealing, not stealing. Accordingly, it makes yet less sense for the majority to read into the Guideline a limitation that focuses only on the subjective financial valuation of Pratt & Whitney. Moreover, while Pratt & Whitney was the victim of the original theft, it was not the victim of a market that deals in stolen goods. Accordingly, “loss” as defined in U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1 does not, and cannot be, limited to “loss to the victim.”
Because the parties to the illegal transactions in this case dealt in stolen goods worth more than $70,000 as evidenced by the money they exchanged, thereby establishing a floor for the goods’ market value, the “loss” as used in U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1 and defined by the Application Note is over $70,000. See U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1, comment. (n.2) (defining loss as fair market value).
I would affirm the district court’s sentence.