United States v. Bruce J. Rice, and Rice Aircraft, Inc., United States of America v. Bruce Rice

38 F.3d 1536, 94 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 8387, 94 Daily Journal DAR 15520, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 22971, 1994 WL 595365
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided November 2, 1994·No. 93-30383, 93-30407·Published·Cited by 35 cases

Opinion

ORDER

The government’s request for publication is GRANTED.

The memorandum filed August 22,1994, is redesignated as an authored opinion by Judge Goodwin.

OPINION

GOODWIN, Circuit Judge:

After pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy and mail fraud, Rice Aircraft, Inc., a distributor of high-technology aircraft fasteners, and Bruce Rice, its chief executive officer (collectively “Rice”) appeal a final judgment ordering them to pay restitution to four companies injured by their criminal conduct. We affirm.

I.

Rice Aircraft buys aircraft parts from parts manufacturers and distributes them to airplane manufactures. Hi-Shear Corporation (“Hi-Shear”) manufactures high-technology aircraft fasteners (specially designed nuts and bolts or “Hi-Lok” parts) used to attach aircraft engines to wings and wings to aircraft fuselage.

Because fastener failure has serious consequences, both military and commercial aircraft manufacturers require fasteners to meet rigorous quality assurance standards. Shipments must be accompanied by testing reports and documentation, identifying the fasteners by production lot and confirming that samples from the lot, as well as the relevant raw materials, have been tested for quality control. This documentation enables aircraft manufactures to trace discrepant fasteners to certain lots and raw materials.

Rice admits that, beginning in 1982 and continuing “at least until” October 1987, Rice engaged in a scheme to defraud customers and evade these quality assurance procedures. As part of this scheme, Rice employed an unauthorized reprocessing firm to ■reprocess approximately 7.5 million fasteners. Rice then fraudulently sold these reprocessed fasteners as new. In order to evade their customers’ quality assurance procedures, Rice bribed certain Hi-Shear employees to provide them with Hi-Shear test reports and then arbitrarily sent these test reports with untested, reprocessed, fasteners, thereby falsely assuring customers that the reprocessed fasteners had been manufactured and tested under Hi-Shear-approved procedures.

The plea agreement provided that Rice and Rice Aircraft would be jointly and severally liable for restitution and would collectively pay no more than one million dollars in restitution. The district court sentenced Bruce Rice to four years imprisonment for Count I (conspiracy) 1 and to probation on counts II and III (the mail fraud counts); the court sentenced Rice Aircraft to probation and fines.

*1540 On appeal, we affirmed the convictions and Bruce Rice’s sentence, specifically affirming the district court’s sentencing findings. However, we reversed in part Rice Aircraft’s sentence, holding that the district court erred in sentencing Rice Aircraft to probation. Unpublished Memorandum, 937 F.2d 614 (9th Cir.1991). The Supreme Court denied certiorari. — U.S.—, 112 S.Ct. 966, 117 L.Ed.2d 132 (1992). On remand, the parties again stipulated that the restitution would be limited to one million dollars, with specific amounts to be determined in subsequent proceedings. April 29, 1992, Stipulated Order, ER 101-02. On the government’s motion, the district court ordered Rice and Rice Aircraft to pay one million dollars in restitution, divided pro rata between Grumman Aerospace Corp. (“Grumman”), Hi-Shear, Special-T-Fasteners (“STF”) and Defense Industrial Supply Center (“DISC”). Rice timely appealed.

II. RESTITUTION

Within the statutory framework, a restitution order is reviewed for abuse of discretion. United States v. Parrott, 992 F.2d 914, 916 (9th Cir.1993). The legality of a restitution order is reviewed de novo, id., while the district court’s underlying factual findings are reviewed for clear error. United States v. Smith, 944 F.2d 618, 623 (9th Cir.1991), cert. denied, — U.S. — 112 S.Ct. 1515, 117 L.Ed.2d 651 (1992).

Rice’s restitution award is legal if either the Federal Probation Act (“FPA”) or the Victim and Witness Protection Act (“VWPA”) authorizes it. 2 Parrott, 992 F.2d at 916-17; United States v. Weir, 861 F.2d 542, 546 (9th Cir.1988), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1089, 109 S.Ct. 1555, 103 L.Ed.2d 858 (1989). Under either statute, the government has the burden of establishing by a preponderance of the evidence that the victim’s damages were caused by the conduct of which the defendant was convicted. Parrott, 992 F.2d at 917.

III. GRUMMAN

Grumman is a Rice customer which manufactures military and civilian aircraft for the Navy and other customers. When Grumman learned of the criminal charges against Rice, it impounded its entire inventory of Rice-supplied fasteners. Since then, it has allegedly been unable to sort potentially fraudulent Rice-supplied fasteners from properly tested and authenticated ones. Because its clients, including the Navy, require all parts to be properly tested and authenticated, Grumman contends it cannot use any of its Rice-supplied fasteners. The district court found that Rice’s conduct had tainted Grumman’s entire inventory and awarded Grumman restitution based on the value of its entire Rice-supplied inventory. 3

A. The Offense of Conviction.

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United States v. Bruce J. Rice, and Rice Aircraft, Inc., United States of America v. Bruce Rice, 38 F.3d 1536, 94 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 8387, 94 Daily Journal DAR 15520, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 22971, 1994 WL 595365 (9th Cir. 1994).

38 F.3d 1536 (United States v. Bruce J. Rice, and Rice Aircraft, Inc., United States of America v. Bruce Rice) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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