United States v. Soto, No. 13-2343 (1st Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseThe Soto family - Carmen and Pedro and their son, Steven - operated a real estate business in Massachusetts that they used to orchestrate several fraudulent real estate transactions. The Sotos were each convicted of multiple counts of mail fraud based on these fraudulent transactions. Steven and Pedro were also convicted of multiple counts of aggravated identity theft. The First Circuit affirmed the convictions and sentences, holding (1) the district court did not err in denying Defendants’ motion to suppress evidence from a laptop and from the Soto family residence; (2) Steven was not subject to double jeopardy; (3) there was no plain error in admitting testimony of a certain witness; (4) the district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding a report from the Government Accountability Office; (5) there was sufficient evidence to sustain the convictions; (6) the Sotos waived any challenge to the good faith/condonation instruction, and the reasonable doubt instruction was not erroneous; and (7) the district court did not abuse its discretion in ordering Carmen to pay $792,559 in restitution.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on September 1, 2015.
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