United States v. Stokes, No. 15-1602 (1st Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseDefendant pled guilty to eight counts of wire fraud and seven counts of mail fraud for sending fraudulent invoices appearing to be sent by a legitimate trade association to thousands of businesses, which unwittingly sent “membership dues” to Defendant. The district court determined that Defendant’s scheme had an intended loss of between $400,000 and $1 million and 250 or more victims. These determinations increased Defendant’s sentencing range under the Guidelines, and Defendant was sentenced to forty-eight months’ imprisonment. Defendant appealed the denial of his motion to suppress the mailings intercepted by postal inspectors and the district court’s sentencing determination. The First Circuit affirmed, holding (1) the search of Defendant’s P.O. Box and the seizure of mailings were not unreasonable, and therefore, the district court did not err in denying Defendant’s motion to suppress; and (2) the district court did not clearly err in its loss calculation.
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