Archive | restitution

United States v. Cadet, No. 10-4220-cr (2d Cir. December 20, 2011) (Miner, Cabranes, Wesley, CJJ)

An Eastern District jury convicted Joseph Cadet of 16 tax offenses based on his preparation of dozens of false tax returns for his “clients” between 2003 and 2006. Although the court affirmed his conviction – he challenged only the admission of Rule 404(b) evidence, a perennial loser in this circuit – it vacated and remanded the sentence due to a host of sentencing errors.

First, the district court imposed a 41-month prison sentence and a three-year term of supervised release on each of the 16 counts of conviction. But the statutory maximum term of imprisonment for each violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7206(2) was three years’ imprisonment to be followed by one year of supervised release.

The court also made several incorrect restitution rulings. First, the restitution order included losses sustained by New York City …

United States v. Qurashi, No. 10-348-cr (2d Cir. March 8, 2011) (Newman, Walker, Pooler, CJJ)

Imran Quarashi and his brother, Adnan, purchased $3 million insurance policies on Adnan’s life from two different insurance companies. They then faked Adnan’s death, falsely asserting that he had died in a car accident in Pakistan, and the insurers paid Quarashi on the policies. A few years later, Adnan returned to the United States and assumed a new identity, Hassan Khan, and Quarashi purchased eight $10 million insurance policies on Khan’s life. When he claimed that Khan had been killed in a traffic accident in Pakistan, the insurance companies balked, opened an investigation, and Quarashi was ultimately charged with fraud.

Quarashi pled guilty – Adnan is still a fugitive – and was sentenced to 108 months’ imprisonment. On appeal he challenged the district court’s inclusion of prejudgment interest on the restitution order. Noting that this …