Wire Fraud-Sixth Amendment

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Brian Gustafson

Case No.: 24-1599

Officials: Ripple, Brennan, and Kolar, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Wire Fraud-Sixth Amendment

Gustafson was convicted of wire fraud in the Northern District of Illinois. As a manager at a Public Storage facility in Deerfield, Illinois, he facilitated the theft of valuable items from a tenant’s storage unit. Gustafson provided a key to John Garcia, who, along with Marilyn Rothschild, sold the stolen items, which included antiques and artwork worth $185,000. Garcia and Rothschild sold these items to buyers, receiving payments in cash and checks, which triggered interstate wire transfers.

The district court sentenced Gustafson to 24 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, and ordered him to pay $330,237 in restitution. Gustafson filed motions for a judgment of acquittal and a new trial, arguing that he did not cause the interstate wire transfers. The district court denied both motions, ruling that although Gustafson may not have anticipated the use of wire transmissions, their occurrence was reasonably foreseeable due to the high value of the stolen items.

Before the Seventh Circuit, Gustafson challenged the sufficiency of the evidence for his wire fraud conviction, prosecutorial misconduct during closing arguments, and the restitution order. The court found that the wire transmissions were reasonably foreseeable given the high value and volume of the stolen items and the involvement of buyers in different locations. The court also ruled that the prosecutor’s comments during closing arguments did not deprive Gustafson of a fair trial, and that the restitution order did not violate his Sixth Amendment rights.

Affirmed.

Decided 03/05/25