United States Ninth Circuit

Defendant's conviction and sentence on six counts arising out of her involvement in a scheme to obtain money from a tribal credit program are: 1) affirmed in part, as to the charges of bribery and misprision of a felony; but 2) reversed in part, as to the remaining charges, where a) the government's misapplication theory cannot support a conviction for conspiracy and the embezzlement and conversion theories also fail because defendant never controlled or had custody of the funds she later borrowed, b) the conviction for concealment of public corruption fails because the government did not show that defendant violated a specific duty to report credit program fraud, and c) on the conviction for public acts affecting a personal financial interest, the connection between the payment of a BIA Administrative Officer's fraudulent nominee loans and the defendant's alleged financial interest is remote and speculative; and 3) reversed in part, where the district court erred at sentencing in its application of U.S.S.G. section 2C1.1(b)(2).

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/05/2013
• Published 07/05/2013

Judges

• McKEOWN

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel