Pleas & Sentencing

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Sally Iriri

Case No.: 15-3692

Officials: POSNER and FLAUM, Circuit Judges, and ALONSO, District Judge.

Focus: Pleas & Sentencing

Enhancement appropriate given circumstances and appellant conduct.

“The sentencing judge cannot be criticized for adding al‐ most two years to the top of the defendant’s guidelines sen‐ tence. Not only is a federal judge not bound to give a sen‐ tence within the applicable guidelines range; he is not per‐ mitted to do so without first considering the sentencing factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). See Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 49–50 (2007). One factor is the need for the sentence “to afford adequate deterrence to criminal conduct.” § 3553(a)(2)(B). The scheme in which the defendant partici‐ pated was extremely lucrative, and even if the slogan at‐ tributed (probably incorrectly) to P. T. Barnum that “There’s a sucker born every minute” is an exaggeration, it is obvious that in this nation of 324 million people a very large number of persons are unusually vulnerable to scams, a fact that magnifies the prospective profits of the scammers (unless there are too many of them).”

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.