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Saturday, January 17th, 2009

Summary Summary

Here are two summary orders of interest:

In United States v. Mammedov, No. 06-2971-cr (2d Cir. December 30, 2008), the court vacated a restitution order where the district court failed to set a payment schedule and, at least implicitly, ordered that the full amount be paid immediately. Ordering immediate payment when nothing in the record suggests that the defendant can comply is an abuse of discretion.

In United States v. Jibade, No. 08-1746-cr (2d Cir. January 7, 2009), the district court told the defendant that he faced possible deportation for his tax fraud conspiracy conviction when, in fact, deportation was mandatory. The court held that this warning was adequate because it put the defendant “on notice” that his guilty plea had immigration consequences so that he could pursue the matter later. Even assuming, however, that the warning was misleading or inacurate, in violation of Rule 11, the court did not …

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Crack Under Pressure

United States v. Williams, No. 08-1065-cr (2d Cir. January 7, 2009) (Hall, Livingston, Gibson, CJJ)

Here, the defendant, Saquan Lewis, unsuccessfully appealed the district court’s denial of his motion for a sentence reduction under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c) based on the retroactive amendment to the Guideline for offenses involving crack cocaine.

The District Court Proceedings

Lewis had originally pled guilty to trafficking in crack cocaine and a 924(c) charge under a cooperation agreement. At sentencing, he agreed that he was responsible for between 50 and 150 grams of crack which, under the applicable version of the Guidelines, resulted in an offense level of 32, with 3 levels deducted for acceptance of responsibility. His sentencing range on the crack count was 97 to 121 months, but due to his prior felony, he faced a 20-year mandatory minimum on that charge and a 5-year consecutive sentence on the 924(c). After granting the …


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Nothing In Store

United States v. Uddin, No. 07-3121-cr (2d Cir. January 6, 2009) (Kearse, Sack, Katzmann, CJJ)

Mohammed Uddin owned a small grocery store in Manhattan, and used it to commit food stamp fraud between 2003 and 2006 by dispensing cash in exchange for food stamps. He pled guilty but admitted in his allocution only that the amount of fraud exceeded $5,000 – the jurisdictional amount. After a Fatico hearing, the district court concluded that the loss amount was $377,799, and sentenced Uddin accordingly. On appeal, Uddin challenged the loss calculation.

The District Court Proceedings

The government had been seeking a loss in excess of $1.2 million, arguing that all of Uddin’s food stamp redemptions exceeding $50 during the relevant time period were fraudulent. Uddin argued instead that the loss should be limited to $5,000, the amount he admitted in his plea.

The evidence at the Fatico hearing showed that his store …


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Categories: loss calculation, Uncategorized

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Lies My Broker Told Me

United States v. Kelley, No. 06-5536-cr (2d Cir. January 5, 2009) (per curiam)

Kevin Kelley, a stock broker, was convicted of securities and wire fraud based on his fraudulent activities with respect to four separate securities. For each of them he would either (1) purchase stocks for his clients without their authorization (2) do so without disclosing his own interest in the company or (3) misappropriate client funds for his own use. Kelley subsequently deceived his clients about the value of their investments by sending them false account statements.

Over his objection, those account statements were admitted into evidence on the securities fraud counts. On appeal, he pursued that claim, again without success. Kelley’s specific argument was that under 15 U.S.C. § 78j – section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 – it is a crime to “employ, in connection with the purchase or sale of any security …


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Categories: Rule 801(d)(2)(D), securities law, Uncategorized

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Wednesday, December 24th, 2008

Dogged Determination

United States v. Hayes, No. 07-0063-cr (2d Cir. December 24, 2008) (Miner, McLaughlin, Pooler, CJJ)

On the morning of September 3, 2002, Derrick Hayes overdosed on cocaine. After he was put in an ambulance, his girlfriend gave local police officers permission to search the house. They found evidence suggesting that Hayes was a large-scale drug trafficker, so they suspended the search and made arrangements to obtain a search warrant. One of the officers, while waiting for the warrant, released a drug-sniffing dog, “Kilo,” from the car, where it had been confined for several hours. During a Frisbee came with the officer in Hayes’ front yard, the dog alerted. The officer encouraged the dog to continue investigating, and it ran around Hayes’ house, toward the back of a detached garage. From an area of thick brush, about sixty-five feet from the house, and near the border with a neighbor’s property, the …


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Categories: curtilage, Fourth Amendment, Uncategorized

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Thursday, December 18th, 2008

Summary Summary

There were some interesting summary orders this week.

In United States v. Romero, No. 06-1199-cr (2d Cir. December 18, 2008), the district court imposed a $10,000 fine, observing that the debt would make the defendant eligible for work in prison. That observation was incorrect, since a fine is not a prerequisite for obtaining prison employment. The circuit remanded so that the lower court can reconsider whether to impose a fine.

In United States v. McFadden, No. 07-3614-cr (2d Cir. December 17, 2008), the court did not enforce an appeal waiver in a plea agreement because, during the plea allocution, the court did not specifically flag the waiver, and even implied that McFadden had a limited right to appeal his sentence. As a result, the appellate court ordered a Crosby/Regalado remand.

In United States v. Sykes, No. 07-0505-cr (2d Cir. December 17, 2008), the court strongly suggested that a search of …

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Taking Stock

United States v. Elgindy, No. 06-4081-cr (2d Cir. December 17, 2008) (Sack, Katzmann, CJJ, Rakoff, DJ)

Defendants Elgindy and Royer were convicted of securities fraud-based racketeering counts, as well as related extortion charges relating to a complex stock manipulation scheme. On appeal they challenged, inter alia, venue and the district court’s jury instructions on the securities fraud counts. The circuit affirmed.

The Scheme

In 1998, Elgindy started Pacific Equity, a company that provided information for stock investors. It had a publicly available website that published negative information about publicly traded stocks, while a subscriber-only site profited from this information by advising its subscribers to short-sell those same stocks. In 2000, Elgindy began receiving misappropriated negative law enforcement information about certain stocks from Royer, who was then an FBI agent. Elgindy would pass on this information to his subscribers and instruct them to short the stock before he made the information …


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Categories: manufactured venue, securities law, Uncategorized

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Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

Restoration Drama

United States v. Bullock, No. 07-3059-cr (2d Cir. December 17, 2008) (Jacobs, Minor, Sotomayor, CJJ)

Bullock, a previously convicted felon, was convicted, after a jury trial, of possessing ammunition. He was subject to a fifteen-year mandatory minimum under the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”), and actually received a sentence of 188 months. On appeal, he argued principally that his prior convictions – three robberies – were not ACCA predicates because his civil rights had been restored. See 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20). Specifically, he noted that he had “been off parole for 11 years,” was “entitled to vote,” and that New York law did not restrict his right to possess ammunition.

The circuit disagreed. Restoration of civil rights has three components – the right to vote, the right to serve on a jury, and the right to hold elective office. The court agreed that Bullock’s rights to vote and hold office …


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Categories: ACCA, restoration of rights, Uncategorized

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Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

Summary Summary

Here is the latest crop of summary orders of interest:

In United States v. Adelson, No. 06-2738-cr (2d Cir. December 9, 2008), a government appeal, the court affirmed a 42-month sentence, which was a substantial downward variance from the guidelines, which recommended life. Citing Cavera, the court noted that for “financial offenses” sentences “if adequately explained, should be reviewed especially deferentially.”

In United States v. Cardenas, No, 06-5601-cr (2d Cir. December 9, 2008), the court remanded for an evidentiary hearing as to whether an “oral cooperation agreement” existed. The defendant alleged that there was, and there was not “overwhelming evidence to the contrary.” Moreover, the defendant’s allegations were not contradicted by any of his prior statements. Since the defendant made “sufficiently specific allegations under oath to raise issues of material fact as to the existence of the alleged oral agreement . . . the record was insufficient to deny the …

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Monday, December 8th, 2008

Run-On Sentence

United States v. Chavez, No. 05-4679-cr (2d Cir. December 8, 2008) (Kearse, Calabresi, Sack, CJJ)

Jaime Chavez was convicted after a jury trial of a drug conspiracy and a § 924(c) offense, and faced a 50-year mandatory minimum: due to a prior conviction there was a 20-year minimum on the drug charge; and, because the gun had a silencer, he faced a 30-year mandatory consecutive sentence for the gun. The guidelines recommended a minimum sentence of 60 years; 30 for the drugs plus 30 for the gun, and the district court sentenced him to 55 years.

Chavez had asked the court to shorten the sentence on the drug charge in light of the long sentence he faced for the gun, but the district court concluded that it could not lawfully do this. Rather, the court independently selected 25 years as the appropriate sentence for the drug conspiracy, then imposed the …

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Sunday, December 7th, 2008

Take It To The Banc

United States v. Cavera, No. 05-4591-cr (2d Cir. December 4, 2008) (en banc)

Gerard Cavera pled guilty to participating in a scheme in which guns were purchased in the South then transported to New York City for sale. At sentencing, the district court imposed a sentence six months longer than the top of the Guideline range, and an above-Guideline fine, based on two “location specific” concerns. The court held that firearms offenses are more dangerous in densely populated urban environments and that the need for deterrence was greater because New York’s strict gun laws made it one of the few places where gun-running was profitable.

On Cavera’s appeal, a panel of the court vacated the sentence as procedurally unreasonable (the case was blogged here twice, most recently in October 2007 under the title Location, Location, Location). The circuit then took up the case en banc. Although the court divided deeply …


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