Loss Calculation in Odometer-Rollback Case Reasonable

US v. Sutton, No. 07-1223, 2008 WL 879429 (April 3, 2008): Defendant, a Colorado car dealer, pled guilty to one count of mail fraud and one count of odometer tampering related to a scheme in which he rolled back the odometers of 76 high mileage used cars so that they looked like they had lower mileage, then manipulated the titles so that new Arizona titles were issued showing the modified mileages as being real. His sentence was two concurrent 30-month sentences. He appealed the court's assessment of a 12-level enhancement under USSG 2B1.1(b)(1)(G) based on the court's conclusion he caused $304,000 in loss. The parties disputed the amount of loss at sentencing, and the district court ulltimately went with the government's proposed "conservative" value of $4,000 of loss per vehicle sold, or about 40% of the sales price (the government said $4,000 was conservative because a DOT study found that the loss was properly the entire price paid for the vehicle). The Tenth Circuit concluded that the district court's determination of the amount of loss was reasonable and affirmed.