Bank Fraud

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Christopher Simmons

Case No.: 22-1321

Officials: Cudder, St. Eve, and Kirsch, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Bank Fraud

Simmons utilized someone else’s Social Security number and fabricated employment details to initiate a savings account application and request multiple loans and credit cards through a credit union. He was subsequently found guilty of bank fraud under 18 U.S.C. 1344 and aggravated identity theft under section 1028A. During his legal proceedings, Simmons contended that the government had failed to demonstrate his awareness that the Social Security number he used belonged to another individual. Additionally, at the sentencing stage, he raised objections to the Pre-Sentence Report’s (PSR) assessment of the calculated intended loss.

The PSR determined that Simmons had intended a total loss amount of $176,326. This sum incorporated a cashier’s check that Simmons cashed, as well as the aggregated amounts of each loan and credit card application he submitted—some of which were ultimately denied. Simmons argued that his intention was to secure only one credit card and one auto loan, and had he achieved this on January 23, he would have halted his actions. By excluding two further applications, the calculated loss would have fallen below $150,000, resulting in a sentencing enhancement of merely eight levels instead of the original ten.

Upon review, the district court adopted the loss amount from the PSR. Consequently, Simmons received a sentence of 46 months for the counts of bank fraud, followed by a mandatory consecutive sentence of 24 months for the aggravated identity theft charge, within the Guidelines range of 30-37 months. The Seventh Circuit upholds this verdict. The conviction for aggravated identity theft was supported by substantial evidence, and the determination of the loss amount was not evidently flawed.

Affirmed

Decided 08/07/23

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