United States v. Lawrence Neadle, Jr.

72 F.3d 1104, 1995 WL 749562
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedJanuary 29, 1996
Docket94-7417
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 72 F.3d 1104 (United States v. Lawrence Neadle, Jr.) 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. Lawrence Neadle, Jr., 72 F.3d 1104, 1995 WL 749562 (3d Cir. 1996).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

ROTH, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Lawrence Neadle, Jr., pled guilty to one count of mail fraud. At sentencing, the district court imposed a sixty-month term of imprisonment and a three-year term of supervised release. On appeal, Neadle contends that the district court misapplied the United States Sentencing Guidelines (“Guidelines”) in its calculation of the [1106]*1106victims’ loss under U.S.S.G. § 2Fl.l(b) and its upward departure based on the amount of that loss. He also alleges that the court erred in granting an upward departure based on psychological harm to the victims and on loss of confidence in the insurance industry. We hold that the district court properly calculated the loss arising from the appellant’s fraud and that it did not err in its upward departure based on the amount of loss. We find, however, that the district court erred in its conclusion to depart upward for psychological harm/loss of confidence. We will, therefore, for the reasons stated below, vacate defendant’s sentence and remand for resentencing pursuant to this opinion.

I.

A.

The appellant, Lawrence M. Neadle, Jr., and two co-defendants were indicted on one count of conspiracy and eight counts of mail and wire fraud on November 18,1992. After one co-defendant was acquitted, a superseding indictment charged Neadle and the other co-defendant with substantially the same offenses. Count I of the Superseding Indictment charged them with a conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371; Counts II and III charged them with mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341; and Counts IV through IX charged them with wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343.

In October 1993, Neadle changed his plea to Count II of the superseding indictment (mail fraud) from not guilty to guilty. Pursuant to the plea agreement, the remaining counts against him were dismissed at sentencing. On July 6, 1994, the district court sentenced Neadle to sixty months imprisonment and placed him under supervised release for a three-year period upon his release from prison. Neadle was released pending appeal and filed his notice of appeal the next day.

The charges against Neadle arose from his creation of the American Property and Casualty Insurance Company (“AMPAC”). Nea-dle was chief executive officer of the company. In late 1987, he applied to the Division of Banking and Insurance of the Virgin Islands (“Insurance Division”) for a license to form AMPAC. At that time, the Insurance Division required an insurance company to have a minimum capital of $450,000, an initial surplus capital of $250,000, and a bond of $500,000. Neadle provided the Insurance Commissioner with a surety bond for $500,-000 but misrepresented the amount of the company’s initial capital.1

On January 5,1988, Neadle caused a letter to be sent through the United States mail to the Insurance Division, stating that AMPAC had unencumbered certificates of deposit in the sum of $700,000 in the Naples Federal Savings and Loan Association (“Naples Federal”) in Naples, Florida. In fact, however, the certificates were encumbered, as Neadle was fully aware. Unaware of the deception, the government of the Virgin Islands in January 1988 issued AMPAC a license to do business in that territory.

After obtaining the loan for the certificates of deposit, AMPAC paid interest on the loan of $2,300 a month. AMP AC’s quarterly reports to the Insurance Division, however, listed the $700,000 in encumbered certificates as an asset but did not list that amount as an offsetting liability, and the reports did not include the interest payments.

In September 1989, Hurricane Hugo hit the Virgin Islands. AMPAC was unable to meet the resulting claims of its policyholders. The Virgin Islands government established the Hurricane Hugo Fund Program to pay the claims for AMPAC and American Alliance, the other Virgin Islands insurance company that failed as a result of claims arising out of the hurricane.

B.

At the July 12, 1993, pre-trial hearing in this matter, witnesses testified regarding the Insurance Division’s capital requirements. Derek Hodge, the Lieutenant Governor and Insurance Commissioner of the Virgin Islands at that time, testified that he would not have certified a company to do business with[1107]*1107out the $700,000 minimum in capital and paid-in surplus. Hodge also stated that he followed guidelines, promulgated by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, requiring all insurance companies to maintain a solvency ratio of three to two in premiums to surplus. He further testified • regarding the methods he used to ensure that insurance companies doing business in the Virgin Islands complied with the requirements. He stated that, among other things, he reviewed audits conducted by Insurance Commission examiners, who reviewed quarterly financial statements submitted by the companies.

Deverita Sturdivant, Director of the Insurance Division from January 1987 through the end of 1989, testified that the $700,000 minimum capital requirement applied to new businesses. She stated that once a company started writing policies, the compa-' ny might need to increase its capital to ensure the proper premium dollars to surplus ratio. Sturdivant testified further that had she discovered that AMPAC did not meet the minimum capital requirement, the Insurance Division could have demanded that unencumbered assets be infused into the company or, in the alternative, that the company be liquidated.

In May 1994, the district court held a • hearing to address the defense objections to the Presentence Investigation and Report. Ricardo Luaces, a claims examiner employed by the Insurance Division from 1989 to 1993, testified that the gross figure for Hurricane Hugo losses incurred on property insured by AMPAC was $37,655,038. The adjusted Hurricane Hugo claims of AMPAC policyholders amounted to $24,438,748. Roland Riviere, an independent insurance adjuster retained to assist in adjusting the claims of AMPAC’s insureds for Hugo-related damage, quoted the same figure.

John McDonald, the Chief Examiner for the Insurance Division during the time that the Insurance Division compiled Hugo-related claims, testified that the best estimate of non-Hugo related claims .on AMPAC was $500,000. He further testified that, in early 1988, the Insurance Division had discovered that AMPAC had no general ledger — the basic accounting format in which debits and credits are captured — so that AMPAC’s assets and liabilities could not be determined. At that time, the Commission also detected a commingling of funds between AMPAC and Caribbean Mutual, another of Neadle’s companies. McDonald testified that the Commission directed Neadle to correct these accounting problems but that by the time of the hurricane, there were still no accounting records from which AMPAC’s assets could be determined. McDonald confirmed, however, that one of Neadle’s accountants, Norman Erasso, had begun implementing the requested accounting procedures. Erasso, however, left the territory when Hugo struck and did not return.

Neadle testified that, as of the date of the hurricane, he had reinsurance of $4 million.

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United States v. Lawrence Neadle, Jr.
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Bluebook (online)
72 F.3d 1104, 1995 WL 749562, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-lawrence-neadle-jr-ca3-1996.