By: Derek Hawkins//March 15, 2017//
7th Circuit court of Appeals
Case Name: United States of America v. Rashid Minhas
Case No.: 15-3761; 15-3763
Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and BAUER and MANION, Circuit Judges.
Focus: Sentencing – Sentencing Guidelines – Enhancement
Rashid Minhas used the Chicago-based travel agencies he operated to swindle customers and airlines out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Minhas was convicted of wire and mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1343 in two separate cases: one that proceeded to a bench trial in February 2014, and one in which Minhas pleaded guilty in 2015. At a consolidated sentencing hearing, the district court imposed two partially concurrent prison terms totaling 114 months. On appeal from the two judgments, Minhas challenges the district court’s application of the Sentencing Guidelines’ enhancement for causing “substantial financial hardship” to the two sets of victims. U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(2). Though we have seen stronger evidence, we are not convinced that the district court committed clear error in its assessment of the record, and so we affirm its judgment.
Affirmed