U.S. v. Leonzo, 94-3050
| Decision Date | 31 March 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 94-3050,94-3050 |
| Citation | 50 F.3d 1086,311 U.S. App. D.C. 134 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Fernando LEONZO, Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (93cr00420).
Thomas G. Corcoran, appointed by this Court, Washington, DC, argued the cause and filed the briefs, for appellant.
Lilly Ann Sanchez, Asst. U.S. Atty., Washington, DC, argued the cause, for appellee. With her on the brief were Eric H. Holder, Jr., U.S. Atty., John R. Fisher, William S. Block and Katherine A. Worthington, Asst. U.S. Attys., Washington, DC.
Before: BUCKLEY, WILLIAMS and SENTELLE, Circuit Judges.
Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge WILLIAMS.
Under the Sentencing Guidelines, punishment for certain economic crimes depends on the value of the loss inflicted. This case involves a dispute as to how to measure the loss caused by the defendant's default on a fraudulently obtained loan. The government claimed that the loss was 39.5% of the loan's principal balance. The only evidence it offered to support that figure was that the Resolution Trust Corporation, as successor to the defrauded bank, had sold the loan as part of a portfolio of non-performing loans and had realized a price on the portfolio amounting to only 60.5% of the total of the principal balances. Defendant offered in opposition an appraisal that showed a range of values for the property securing his loan, the lowest of which was well above the principal balance. The district court accepted the government's view. We find that it erred in doing so. Because the average value of members of a set, without more, provides no evidence of the value of any particular member of the set, the government's evidence failed to prove a loss. We reverse and remand for resentencing without the Guidelines "point" attributable to this error.
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Fernando Leonzo pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 371 (1988). At sentencing, the government argued for an enhancement of the base offense level on the basis of asserted losses in three separate transactions. Two of these, with losses totaling nearly $79,000, are undisputed; Leonzo concedes that the district court could properly add six points (for losses exceeding $70,000) and accordingly sentence him to up to 18 months. See U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Sec. 2F1.1(b)(1)(G) (1994).
The dispute here centers around a third transaction, which the government claims bumps the losses up into the next category, "More than $120,000". Id. Sec. 2F1.1(b)(1)(H). In May 1990 Leonzo obtained a $275,000 loan from Perpetual Savings Bank to refinance the mortgage on his home in Vienna, Virginia. He defaulted a year later, leaving nearly $274,000 of outstanding principal. In January 1992 Perpetual was declared insolvent and placed in the receivership of the RTC. The RTC put the loan into a portfolio of loans that had in common only the fact that they were non-performing; it sold the package at auction in September 1992 for 60.5% of the loans' aggregate principal balance.
In preparation for sentencing the government obtained a letter from the RTC reciting this information, which the RTC claimed proved that it had taken a loss of 39.5% of the loan's $273,704.42, or $108,057.88. This brought the total losses caused by Leonzo to well over $120,000. Leonzo responded with an appraisal by Long & Foster Real Estate, valuing the Vienna property at between $300,000 and $330,000. The low end of the range was more than $25,000 above the unpaid balance; the mid-range estimate was more than $40,000 higher. He also applied for funds under the Criminal Justice Act to meet the expense of securing an expert witness, a professor of finance at American University, who, according to Leonzo's application, would provide a written opinion about the RTC's loss calculation.
The district court denied the request for expert assistance as "not warranted" and accepted the RTC's loss calculation. Accordingly, the court added 7 points for the total amount of the losses. After adjusting for various increases and decreases that are not disputed, this yielded a total offense level of 14, with a resulting sentencing range, given defendant's criminal history category, of 15 to 21 months. The court sentenced Leonzo to 21 months.
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For "Offenses Involving Fraud or Deceit" the Sentencing Guidelines direct courts to consider the "actual loss to the victim", and instruct them to...
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