Sentencing — amount of loss

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U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit

Criminal

Sentencing — amount of loss

It is irrelevant in imposing sentence whether the amount of loss was $16.8 million or $18.2 million.

“Now it’s true that having correctly calculated the guidelines sentencing range, the sentencing judge must go on and apply the sentencing factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). Only after doing that may he decide what sentence to give within the statutory, not the guidelines, sentencing range for the defendant’s crime. And the amount of loss caused by a defendant, even if not germane to his guidelines range, is germane to the sentence that the judge will give after evaluating the defendant’s criminal conduct in light of the statutory sentencing factors. But the difference between a $16.8 million estimate of loss (and remember the actual loss is more than that) and an $18.2 million estimate is too small to have affected the sentence in this case. It had no effect on the guide-lines sentencing range and the defendant has not challenged the award of $18.2 million in restitution.”

Affirmed.

13-2046 U.S. v. Morawski

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Feinerman, J., Posner, J.