United States v. Spencer, No. 11-3463 (8th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseDefendant was convicted of ten counts of wire fraud and three counts of other fraud-related crimes. On appeal, defendant challenged the district court's evidentiary rulings, as well as his sentence of 125 months' imprisonment. The court held that the district court properly admitted defendant's income tax preparer's testimony because the income tax preparer, although he was an attorney, did not provide legal advice to defendant and there was no attorney-client relationship. The court held that there was no plain error in admitting the expert testimony of a bank officer regarding specific loans brokered by defendant. Finally, the court held that the sentence was substantively reasonable and affirmed the restitution order.
Court Description: Criminal case - Criminal law and sentencing. District court did not err in permitting defendant's income-tax preparer, an attorney, to testify regarding the return as there was no evidence that an attorney-client relationship had been formed; no error in permitting expert testimony as to what the misrepresentations in defendant's loan application would mean to an underwriter; sentence was not substantively unreasonable; restitution order affirmed. Judge Bright, dissenting.
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