United States v. Beltramea, No. 14-1899 (8th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseBeltramea solicited investments to open a Subway restaurant franchise, but used the funds for personal expenses and for a real estate development, “Castlerock,” made fraudulent representations to banking institutions, and attempted to avoid paying taxes. Beltramea pled guilty to 16 counts, including: wire fraud, 18 U.S.C. 1343; aggravated identity theft, 18 U.S.C. 1028(A)(a)(1); money laundering, 18 U.S.C. 1957, 1956(a)(1)(A)(ii) and (a)(1)(B)(i); false statements to a financial institution, 18 U.S.C. 1014; and tax evasion, 26 U.S.C. 7201. The court imposed additional upward departures for understated criminal history and for dismissed and uncharged conduct. Beltramea's adjusted Guidelines' range was 70 to 87 months, before adding the mandatory 24 consecutive months for aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced to a total of 111 months. The court stated that, even if it erred in granting upward departures, it would impose the same sentence based on the factors under 18 U.S.C. 3553(a). The court entered a forfeiture order, 18 U.S.C. 981(a)(1)(C), 28 U.S.C. 2461(c) and 18 U.S.C. 982(a)(1) for rental properties, Castlerock parcels, $125,000 in wire fraud proceeds, and $65,472.02 in money laundering proceeds. The Eighth Circuit reversed the forfeiture order but otherwise affirmed. The government presented no facts connecting the rental properties and the lots to any offense for which Beltramea was convicted.
Court Description: Beam, Author, with Bye and Benton, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Sentencing. The district court did not err in imposing an enhancement under Guidelines Sec. 4A1.3(a) based on its finding that defendant's criminal history was understated; it does not appear that the government met its burden of showing a nexus between the property it sought to forfeit and an offense of conviction; defendant's consent to forfeiture does not abrogate the requirement that a nexus exist between the property sought and the offense; forfeiture order vacated and remanded for further proceedings. [ May 05, 2015
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.