United States v. Arobert Tonagbanua

706 F. App'x 744
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedAugust 29, 2017
Docket17-1815
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 706 F. App'x 744 (United States v. Arobert Tonagbanua) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Arobert Tonagbanua, 706 F. App'x 744 (3d Cir. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION *

PER CURIAM

Arobert C. Tonagbanua appeals from an order of the District Court denying his petition for writ of error coram nobis, 28 U.S.C. § 1651(a). For the reasons that follow, we will summarily affirm.

*745 Tonagbanua, an attorney and shareholder with the law firm of Dickie McCamey, defrauded the firm and the firm’s clients between 2008 and 2012 by inserting the names of clients into civil asbestos complaints to make it appear as if they had been named defendants and then working those cases, and billing those clients, as if they had actually been sued. Tonagbanua was charged by Information in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey with one count of wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343. He pleaded guilty, and, in doing so, knowingly waived his right to a direct and collateral appeal.'At sentencing, the loss and restitution were determined based on the firm’s “hard costs” incurred in identifying and correcting the fraud, as follows: (1) $110,411.30 in professional fees paid to forensic accountants, ethics attorneys and others hired by the firm to remedy the situation; (2) $140,202.62 in cost reimbursements for expenses incurred in defending the matter, including travel to depositions, copying costs, etc.; and (3) $100,000 in settlement funds which were charged to three fraudulent files, for a total of $350,643.92. This determination was to To-nagbanua’s advantage because the firm’s loss, in its view, exceeded $1.2 million. Tonagbanua was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 24 months, which was at the bottom of the Guidelines range, and three years of supervised release. In addition, he was ordered to make restitution in the specific amount of $232,643.92. (He had already made partial restitution in the amount of $118,000.)

Tonagbanua obtained new counsel and filed a notice of appeal. The Government moved to enforce the appellate waiver. In his counseled response to the Government’s motion, Tonagbanua argued that enforcing the appellate waiver would work a miscarriage of justice in his case because the District Court recalculated an offense level of 22, instead of 20 as prescribed by the parties’ agreement as to the loss amount, and when the Court then granted a five-level downward variance the offense level decreased to only a 17, rather than the 15 it would have been had the Court used an offense level of 20. He also argued that his counsel, Michael Miller, was constitutionally ineffective for failing to investigate and argue that the settlements of $100,000 were legitimate and should not have been included in the $350,643.92 loss amount. We granted the Government’s motion to enforce the appellate waiver and dismissed the appeal, see United States v. Tonagbanua, C.A. No. 16-2534. The mandate issued on August 3, 2016 and Tonag-banua did not seek review in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Tonagbanua is currently serving his term of imprisonment. On December 19, 2016, Tonagbanua, through his same appellate counsel, filed a petition for writ of error coram nobis pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1651(a), arguing that the restitution order should be reduced by the $100,000 in settlement funds because those funds were paid out in non-fraudulent files; and that trial counsel Miller did not adequately challenge the matter of restitution at sentencing. Tonagbanua argued that coram nobis may be used to attack a restitution order, citing for authority Barnickel v. United States, 113 F.3d 704, 706 (7th Cir. 1997) (noting court’s approval of “use of writ of error coram nobis to challenge restitution order that was based on inaccurate information”), and Kaminski v. United States, 339 F.3d 84, 90 (2d Cir. 2003) (recognizing “[t]he possible existence of co-ram nobis” to challenge restitution, but emphasizing that “coram nobis can relieve an individual of the continuing noncustodial effects of a criminal conviction only when fundamental errors were made”) (Calabresi, J., commenting separately).

*746 The Government answered the petition, arguing that coram nobis relief was not proper under the circumstances of Tonag-banua’s appellate waiver and because he failed to preserve the restitution issue at sentencing. On the merits of the claim, the Government argued that Tonagbanua could not satisfy his heavy burden to show that he was entitled to coram nobis relief: Tonagbanua understood that the $100,000 settlement funds were included in the requested restitution, and he did not ask the Court to subtract those monies from the restitution order because he knew that he had negotiated a favorable plea deal, which excused him from paying the entire $1.2 million loss.

In an order entered on April 3, 2017, the District Court denied the coram nobis petition on the grounds that: (1) Tonagbanua’s appellate waiver included petitions for writ of error coram nobis; (2) even apart from the appellate waiver, he waived the restitution issue at sentencing; (3) he failed to satisfy at least two of the requirements for relief under coram nobis, particularly, the requirement that he show that the error asserted was fundamental in nature and the requirement that he have no remedy for the alleged defect at trial; and (4) Miller’s performance was not deficient because Tonagbanua knew and agreed that the $100,000 in settlement funds were included in the restitution contemplated by the plea agreement and were direct consequential damages suffered by the firm as a result of his criminal conduct.

Tonagbanua appeals pro se. 1 We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. Our Clerk advised the parties that the Court might take summary action pursuant to Chapter 10.6 of the Court’s Internal Operating Procedures and Third Circuit Local Appellate Rule 27.4. The parties were invited to submit argument in writing and they have done so. In his summary action response, Tonagbanua argues, in pertinent part, that (1) his appellate waiver does not preclude the assertion of a meritorious ineffective assistance of counsel claim in a coram nobis petition, see United States v. Shedrick, 493 F.3d 292, 298 (3d Cir. 2007); (2) his trial counsel was ineffective in failing to fully investigate the matter of the $100,000, and had he properly done so, the firm would not have “incorrectly” reimbursed ■ its clients; and (3) the District Court erred in concluding that his trial counsel was not constitutionally ineffective. The Government sought leave to file its summary action response out-of-time, a motion the Clerk granted. We decline To-nagbanua’s request to reject the Government’s summary action response as untimely filed.

We will summarily affirm the order of the District Court because no substantial question is presented by this appeal, Third Circuit LAR 27.4 and I.O.P. 10.6.

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706 F. App'x 744, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-arobert-tonagbanua-ca3-2017.