Mortgage Fraud Conviction, Sentence Affirmed

US v. Washington, 2011 WL 1025750, No. 10-3144 (10th Cir. 3/23/11): Defendant convicted of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, wire fraud, and commercial carrier fraud, based on a mortgage fraud scheme involving several loans and properties. On appeal, he claimed the evidence was insufficient on the commercial carrier fraud count because the delivery of the mortgage closing documents by FedEx to the lender was not essential to the scheme and occurred after the scheme had been completed. The Tenth rejects the argument, because it was well within reason for the jury to conclude defendant knew about the industry practice and would foresee the use of Federal Express in closing.

Defendant also challenged his sentence, asserting that assignment of any loans before final sale of the foreclosed properties should have been taken into account in the loss calculation under USSG 2B1.1. The Court affirms the general rule, "Where a lender has foreclosed and sold the collateral, the net loss should be determined by subtracting the sales price from the outstanding balance on the loan." It was "appropriate to include the loss incurred by intermediary lenders in the loss calculation." Conviction and sentence affirmed.