United States v. Lefebvre

189 F. App'x 767
Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit·Decided July 25, 2006·No. No. 05-1358·Published

Opinion

ORDER AND JUDGMENT*

WADE BRORBY, Circuit Judge.

After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist the determination of this appeal. See Fed. R.App. P. 34(a)(2); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is therefore ordered submitted without oral argument.

Following his waiver of a jury trial, a district court convicted Appellant Claude LeFebvre of seven counts of wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 1343; eight counts of engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 1957, and one count of forfeiture under 18 U.S.C. § 982(a)(1). Mr. LeFebvre appeals his convictions and sentences, contending the district court erred in: 1) failing to require the government to elect a theory of prosecution on the wire fraud counts; 2) failing to advise him, during and after his waiver of a jury trial, of his right to jury findings of fact regarding his sentence enhancement under United States Sentencing Guidelines Manual (USSG) § 2B1.1; and 3) enhancing his sentence under § 2B1.1 on the basis of an intended monetary loss of $64,850,000, rather than the actual loss in an amount under $4,000,000. We exercise jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3742 and 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and affirm Mr. LeFebvre’s convictions and sentences.

For the purposes of this appeal, we find it unnecessary to recount in detail the scheme involved or representations made, other than to provide a general account of the nature of the scheme, some of the pertinent representations made, and the intended losses attributable to Mr. LeFebvre. To start, Mr. LeFebvre and his co-defendant, Dennis Herula, devised a sophisticated scheme to defraud wealthy investors of huge sums of money; Mr. LeFebvre and the others involved in the scheme represented to investors that a specialized leverage trading program, authorized by the federal government, existed, in which Mr. LeFebvre could very lucratively invest their money in double-A or triple-A rated instruments for at least a 75% return per week. Mr. LeFebvre held himself out as a licensed federal trader with the knowledge and ability necessary to trade in this specialized program; however, no such program existed and he held no federal trader’s license. As part of the scheme, Mr. LeFebvre and his intermediaries solicited individuals to invest a minimum of $10,000,000 in the program. Based on Mr. LeFebvre’s verbal and written false representations about the investment program and himself, one potential investor seriously considered investing $10,000,000, transferred $10,000,000 into a certificate of deposit, and faxed a copy of the certificate of deposit to Mr. LeFebvre at his request as proof of funds for investment, but ultimately declined to make the investment based on the advice of his attorney. However, two Colorado investors, through their company Comet Enterprises, invested $40,000,000, and a Japanese firm invested $14,850,000.

[769] As part of the scheme, Mr. LeFebvre and Mr. Herula opened a series of accounts at a Texas branch office of Merrill Lynch, and on or about July 2, 2002, arranged for the Comet Enterprises investors to wire their $40,000,000 investment to a designated account. Based in part on Mr. LeFebvre’s verbal representations and written documents he presented, the Comet Enterprises investors: 1) procured a $40,000,000 treasury bill for use as margin collateral for Merrill Lynch to release funds on the account; and 2) understood their $40,000,000 investment would be used only to purchase double-A rated instruments. Based, again, in part on certain representations and advice from Mr. LeFebvre, one of the Comet Enterprises investors authorized Merrill Lynch to release money on margin in the amount of $20,000,000 to another account, on which Mr. LeFebvre and Mr. Herula had signature authority, for investment by Mr. LeFebvre in double-A rated bonds. As soon as the money moved into the second account, Mr. Herula transferred $6,000,000 to Mr. LeFebvre’s and his and his wife’s Merrill Lynch accounts and they began spending the money for their own purposes without authorization from the investors. In total, they spent just over $4,000,000 of Comet Enterprises’ funds on items such as cars, jewelry, expensive hotels, gifts to family members, and payment of past debts. After an employee at Merrill Lynch noticed the unauthorized expenditures, Mr. LeFebvre and Mr. Herula falsely reported they used other funds to purchase the promised double-A rated bonds for the investors from a company called Bondhub, thereby allowing them to use the investors’ money for their own purposes. However, no money was ever invested in any A-rated instruments on behalf of Comet Enterprises, and its investors never received any of the promised profit returns.

Meanwhile, sometime on or about July 22, 2002, Mr. LeFebvre helped persuade the Japanese firm to -wire its $14,850,000 investment to a Texas Merrill Lynch account over which he, Mr. Herula, and another person retained signature authority. Again, the money was used to buy a treasury bill which could be used as security for Merrill Lynch to release money to them on margin. On July 25, 2002, an associate of Mr. LeFebvre’s attempted to open an account at Merrill Lynch in Paris, France, using one of the Merrill Lynch Texas accounts opened by Mr. LeFebvre and Mr. Herula. The associate told employees at the Paris office he intended to deposit into the Paris account $4,000,000 per week for thirteen weeks and then distribute the funds to his partners. The Paris office refused to open the account and notified the Merrill Lynch New York office, which, on making inquiries, discovered a pending Securities and Exchange Commission action against Mr. Herula and his wife; it then immediately froze all of the Texas Merrill Lynch accounts associated with Mr. Herula.

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