08-1571 U.S. v. Knox

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Sentencing
Number of victims

In a prosecution for offenses arising from the use of fraudulent real estate appraisals, there is at least one victim for each property.

“Knox’s reliance on United States v. Arnaout, 431 F.3d 994 (7th Cir. 2005), is misplaced. There, the defendant used his position as a director of a charity to solicit donations, which he claimed would only go to support humanitarian efforts. Id. at 997. In actuality, however, a portion of the money was used to raise funds to support groups engaged in armed confrontations and violence overseas. Id. at 998. We found that the district court erred by applying the enhancement for having more than 50 victims because the record failed to show that the funds of all 50 donors were illegally diverted. Id. at 997. Arnaout is inapplicable, however, because we know that at least one person in each of Knox’s transactions was the victim, whether it was the buyer who purchased a home worth substantially less than the appraised value or the lender who issued a mortgage on a home worth substantially less than the appraisal indicated. In Arnaout, it was unclear whether more than 50 donors were made victims by virtue of money being fraudulently diverted to other non-humanitarian efforts. Id. at 999. Here, it is abundantly clear that at least one person in every transaction was a victim and that the number of transactions exceeds ten, so the enhancement was proper.”  Affirmed.

08-1571 U.S. v. Knox

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, McCuskey, J., Williams, J.

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