United States v. Ko, No. 13-2668 (8th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed his conviction and sentence for two counts of theft of government money, one count of Social Security disability fraud, one count of passing a false financial instrument with intent to defraud, and one count of mail fraud. The court concluded that the evidence was sufficient to convict defendant of all charges; the district court did not err in issuing jury instructions concerning judicial notice of the court orders relating to his refusal to provide handwriting samples, or his refusal to comply with those orders; the district court did not err in calculating defendant's advisory guidelines range by imposing an adjustment for obstruction of justice under U.S.S.G. 3C1.1 and in the way it calculated the loss from his offense under U.S.S.G. 2B1.1(b)(1); and the sentence was substantively reasonable. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court.
Court Description: Criminal case - Criminal law and sentencing. The evidence was sufficient to prove defendant possessed the requisite mens rea for conviction of theft of government money, Social Security disability fraud, mail fraud and passing a false financial instrument; instructions concerning defendant's refusal to provide handwriting exmeplars (one on judicial notice and one on the inferences the jury could draw) were not erroneous; district court did not err in imposing an enhancement under Guidelines Sec. 3C1.1for obstruction of justice; nor did the court err in using Guidelines Sec. 2B1.1(b)(1) for calculation of loss; sentence was not substantively unreasonable.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.