United States v. Dale Borders

553 F. App'x 904
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJanuary 24, 2014
Docket13-12120
StatusUnpublished

This text of 553 F. App'x 904 (United States v. Dale Borders) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh 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. Dale Borders, 553 F. App'x 904 (11th Cir. 2014).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

In November 2012, Dale Borders pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in counterfeit goods in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2320(a). In February 2018, the district court sentenced Borders to 30-months imprisonment and ordered restitution of $365,605.31. On appeal, Borders argues that the restitution order should be vacated and that his sentence was procedurally and substantively unreasonable. After a careful review of the briefs and relevant precedent, we affirm his sentence and vacate the restitution order.

I.

Some time around 2006 Borders came to the attention of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and they sent him fifteen notices about importing counterfeit golf clubs. Between 2009 and 2011 Borders received at least 37 shipments of DVDs from abroad. CBP intercepted seven of the shipments and determined they were counterfeit. Government agents went to Borders’s home in August 2011 and after Borders consented to an interview, he surrendered a large number of counterfeit DVDs. Although he told the agents he had no more pending orders for DVDs, days later the government seized two more boxes of counterfeit DVDs at the Orlando DHL hub.

The Probation Office stated that Borders had sold over 33,000 counterfeit DVDs. It then calculated an infringement amount of $342,559.48 by multiplying the number of DVDs sold by their retail value. Probation determined that Borders’s total offense level was 19 and his criminal history category was I, yielding a guideline range of 30 to 37 months. At sentencing, the government discussed the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors, noted that a guideline range sentence was appropriate in light of the nature and circumstances of the offense, and pointed out that Borders continued to import counterfeit goods after being put on notice by the government that his actions were illegal. The district court said Borders had demonstrated a “blatant disregard for the law,” referencing the fifteen letters from CBP as well as cease and desist letters that Borders received and ignored. The district court sentenced Borders at the bottom of the guideline range, 30-months imprisonment, followed by one year of supervised release.

A few months after sentencing the district court held a restitution hearing. A government agent testified at the hearing about her methodology to determine the total value of the imported counterfeit goods. This included estimating the number of DVDs based on the weight of the shipments and multiplying that number of DVDs by the manufacturer suggested retail price. She admitted on cross-examination that no law enforcement officer actually saw the goods in the non-seized shipments, and she could not provide evidence that all of the imported counterfeit goods entered the stream of commerce. The victim companies did not provide any information regarding actual, lost profits. The district court accepted the government’s figures and ordered Borders to pay $365,605.31 in restitution. Borders objected that the government failed to present *906 information on the actual harm to the victim companies.

II.

We normally review the legality of a restitution order de novo, the restitution amount for abuse of discretion, and the factual findings underlying a restitution order for clear error. United States v. Valladares, 544 F.3d 1257, 1269 (11th Cir. 2008). When reviewing for clear error, we will not reverse unless left with a “definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” United States v. Robertson, 498 F.3d 1322, 1330 (11th Cir.2007).

We may choose to accept a concession by the government about a district court’s error, particularly when the law or record justifies it. Cf. Gilbert v. United States, 640 F.3d 1293, 1306 n. 14 (11th Cir.2011) (en banc) (discussing our discretion to accept the government’s concession of a point on appeal); United States v. Harris, 608 F.3d 1222, 1226 (11th Cir.2010) (exercising discretion to accept the government’s concession of a particular issue on appeal).

“Restitution is not intended to provide a windfall for crime victims but rather to ensure that victims, to the greatest extent possible, are made whole for their losses.” United States v. Huff, 609 F.3d 1240, 1249 (11th Cir.2010) (internal quotation marks omitted). “Because a defendant’s culpability will not always equal the victim’s injury,” the amount of loss for restitution purposes will not always equal the amount of loss under the sentencing guidelines. Id. at 1247 (alteration and internal quotation marks omitted).

Because this Court has yet to address how a district court should calculate restitution for the sale of counterfeit goods in a published opinion, we look to persuasive authority from our sister circuits. In United States v. Beydoun, the Fifth Circuit held that the government must prove that counterfeit goods actually entered the marketplace to count towards the restitution calculation, and that restitution must be based on net lost profits, not total retail price. 469 F.3d 102, 107-08 (5th Cir.2006). The Tenth Circuit has cited Beydoun approvingly and held that the government bears the burden to prove actual losses to victims for restitution. United States v. Hudson, 483 F.3d 707, 710 n. 1 (10th Cir. 2007). The Eighth Circuit has held that a disgorgement approach does not apply in restitution; instead, restitution is limited to the actual loss to the victim. United States v. Chalupnik, 514 F.3d 748, 754-55 (8th Cir.2008). And recently the D.C. Circuit held that “the actual loss to the displaced (authentic) seller is the profit lost from the displaced sales — not the retail value of the goods that would have been sold.” United States v. Fair, 699 F.3d 508, 514 (D.C.Cir.2012).

Although we need not decide here the standard for calculating a victim’s loss in this circumstance, it is clear that the government has not introduced sufficient evidence to determine the proper loss amount. At the restitution hearing, the government failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the counterfeit DVDs entered the marketplace. See Robertson, 493 F.3d at 1333. Neither did the government demonstrate the actual loss to the victim companies. On appeal, the government has conceded that multiplying the estimated number of counterfeit DVDs by the full retail price was not an acceptable method for calculating restitution. See Huff, 609 F.3d at 1249.

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Related

United States v. Beydoun
469 F.3d 102 (Fifth Circuit, 2006)
United States v. William Herman Dorman
488 F.3d 936 (Eleventh Circuit, 2007)
United States v. Valladares
544 F.3d 1257 (Eleventh Circuit, 2008)
United States v. Gonzalez
550 F.3d 1319 (Eleventh Circuit, 2008)
Rita v. United States
551 U.S. 338 (Supreme Court, 2007)
Gall v. United States
552 U.S. 38 (Supreme Court, 2007)
United States v. Harris
608 F.3d 1222 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Tommie Huff
609 F.3d 1240 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Turner
626 F.3d 566 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Rodriguez
628 F.3d 1258 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Marvin Daniel Hudson
483 F.3d 707 (Tenth Circuit, 2007)
United States v. Gregory Fair
699 F.3d 508 (D.C. Circuit, 2012)
United States v. Chalupnik
514 F.3d 748 (Eighth Circuit, 2008)
Ezell Gilbert v. United States
640 F.3d 1293 (Eleventh Circuit, 2011)

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553 F. App'x 904, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-dale-borders-ca11-2014.