United States Ninth Circuit
US v. Zhou, 14-50288
Restitution order for guilty plea to unauthorized use of access devices, for use of fraudulent credit cards at a Target store in Colorado and at Nordstrom stores in California, is affirmed over defendant's argument (raised for the first time on appeal) that because the offense of conviction covered only the Nordstrom charges, and the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act of 1996 authorizes restitution only to victims of the offense, the District Court erred by awarding restitution to victims of both the Nordstrom and Target purchases, where: 1) because the defendant did not raise the issue before the District Court, the panel reviewed for plain error; and 2) for purposes of plain-error review, a) the Target charges occurred within the indictment period, b) the defendant did not plead guilty only to the Nordstrom allegations, and the fraudulent Target charges fit within the scope of the count to which he pled guilty, and c) because the Nordstrom charges were sufficient to establish a factual basis for the defendant's crime, the government was not required to mention the Target charges at the plea colloquy.
Appellate Information
- Decided
- Published 2016/09/27
Judges
- GRABER
Court
- United States Ninth Circuit