Sentencing — number of victims

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Criminal

Sentencing — number of victims

In applying a two-level upward adjustment for an offense involving ten or more victims under U.S.S.G. 2B1.1(b)(2)(A)(i), the district court properly included victims whose losses were soon reimbursed.

“We reject Loffredi’s argument that a plain reading of the word ‘sustained’ compels the conclusion that a victim’s losses must be endured for some minimum period of time. See Stepanian, 570 F.3d at 55 (relying on Black’s Law Dictionary defining ‘sustain’ to mean ‘“undergo” or “suffer”’); United States v. Pham, 545 F.3d 712, 718 (9th Cir. 2008) (‘[A]n individual who “sustained bodily injury as a result of the offense” would still be considered a victim under part B of the definition found in application note 1 to U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1 even if he subsequently recovered from that injury.’). We stated in Panice that the guidelines’ definition of ‘victim’ contains no inherent temporal baseline and does not require that the loss persist through the time of sentencing. 598 F.3d at 433. We are not persuaded by the reasoning of other circuits that infer such a limitation from the text of the guidelines.”

Affirmed.

12-1124 U.S. v. Loffredi

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Guzmán, J., Per Curiam.