Criminal Law: Wire Fraud-Restitution-Joint and Several Liability

Defendants participated in a wire-fraud scheme to obtain money from elderly victims, claiming relatives in the Dominican Republic needed wired funds. At sentencing, the district court found that defendants were jointly and severally liable for the total amount obtained by the scheme during each defendant’s respective involvement and accordingly upward departed in each case and ordered restitution at the full amount of loss.

Where one defendant recruited the other defendant, who was intimately involved in each transaction during his participation in the conspiracy, the district court appropriately ordered joint and several liability for restitution for the money stolen during each defendant’s participation in the conspiracy.

Judgment is affirmed.

U.S. v. Rodriguez (MLW No. 72713/Case No. 17-3807 – 8 pages) (U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit, Beam, J.) Appealed from U.S. District Court, Northern District of Iowa, Reade, J. (Mark C. Meyer for appellant Carlos Kalier Rodriguez; Raphael M. Scheetz for appellant Michael Lee Marcov) (Anthony R. Morfitt for appellee)