United States v. Weaver, No. 16-2859 (8th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseThe Eighth Circuit affirmed defendant's sentence of 96 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. The court held that the district court did not err by applying a "means of identification" enhancement under USSG 2B1.1(b)(11)(C)(i). In this case, defendant and his coconspirators transferred the bank account and routing numbers from a fictitious business entity, not an individual. The court also held that defendant's sentence was not substantively unreasonable where the district court carefully explained why it concluded that an upward variance was warranted.
Court Description: Loken, Author, with Wollman and Riley, Circuit Judges] Criminal Case - sentencing. The district court did not err in imposing a Guidelines enhancement under section 2B1.1(b)(11)(C)(i) (involving the unauthorized transfer or use of any means of identification unlawfully to produce or obtain any other means of identification). The scheme to use the bank account, routing number, and payor's signature on stolen checks and create counterfeit checks payable to homeless persons who were recruited to pass the bogus checks at local banks, involved the transfer or use of any "means of identification" to "produce" another means of identification. The offense involved affirmative identity theft or breeding and the victims included individual signatories whose names were used to product counterfeit checks. The upward variance was not substantively unreasonable and the district court did not abuse its discretion in imposing sentence.
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