United States v. Oluwaseun Sanya

652 F. App'x 168
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedJune 14, 2016
Docket15-4306, 15-4574
StatusUnpublished

This text of 652 F. App'x 168 (United States v. Oluwaseun Sanya) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth 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. Oluwaseun Sanya, 652 F. App'x 168 (4th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

*170 PER CURIAM:

Oluwaseun Sanya appeals from the sentences imposed upon resentencing after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit access device fraud, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft in two related cases. In a first appeal, this court ruled that the district court impermissibly participated in plea negotiations on the charges of access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. We vacated those convictions and both sentences and remanded for further proceedings. United States v. Sanya, 774 F.3d 812, 814, 821-22 (4th Cir. 2014). On remand, the cases were assigned to a new district court judge and deconsoli-dated. In the conspiracy to commit access device fraud case, the guilty plea remained intact and the court sentenced Sanya to 90 months of imprisonment. In the case vacating the remaining convictions, the parties again entered into a plea agreement and the court sentenced Sanya to 81 months and one day of imprisonment, all to run consecutively to the previous 90-month sentence. Sanya appeals the sentences imposed on both cases. Counsel has filed an Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967) brief challenging the criminal judgment in the access device fraud and aggravated identity theft convictions. Counsel found no meritorious issues related to the judgment but questioned whether the plea agreement was supported by a factual basis and whether the consecutive sentence was reasonable. Finding no error, we affirm.

We first address the 90-month sentence imposed for conspiracy to commit access device fraud. Sanya argues that the Government presented false and misleading testimony when Detective Mengedoht testified that all the transactions on the “Limnios spreadsheet” were captured on video surveillance. He also contends that the Government presented losses above what was agreed to in the plea agreement. The Government argues that every transaction on the Limnios spreadsheet could be traced to direct video or photographic evidence, as the detective testified that the transactions were all related to at least credit card numbers used by co-conspirators at that location on the same day. Thus, the Government argues, the court was justified in relying upon the Government’s loss spread sheets.

Sanya-’s argument is two-fold. First, whether the evidence presented in the loss spreadsheets was misleading or false and, further, violated the plea agreement. And, second, whether the court erred in relying on the information. Sanya did not object to the use of the challenged spreadsheets at resentencing, therefore we review the claim for plain error. United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 732, 113 S.Ct. 1770, 123 L.Ed.2d 508 (1993). Although Sanya contends that the use of false or misleading evidence implicates his due process rights and should be reviewed de novo, see Napue v. Illinois, 360 U.S. 264, 271, 79 S.Ct. 1173, 3 L.Ed.2d 1217 (1959), because San-ya did not articulate any objection on these bases for the district court to rule upon, we review for plain error.

We conclude that the court did not plainly err in considering Detective Men-gedoht’s testimony and the relevant amount of loss spreadsheets. It is clear from the record that the court was aware that the detective did not have video footage of conspirator Limnios making each transaction on the contested spreadsheets, but the record reflects that the court was aware of the type of evidence supporting the transactions. We therefore find no plain error resulting in the violation of Sanya’s due process rights and, further,. that the testimony was not misleading when viewed as a whole.

*171 Sanya also argued that the Government breached the plea agreement because it introduced evidence and argued for an amount of loss exceeding that stipulated to in the plea agreement. Sanya’s statement of facts in the plea agreement originally stated “hundreds of thousands of dollars” of loss was involved and that San-ya directed “hundreds” of fraudulent transactions. (J.A. 22, 24). This quantitative language was eventually stricken from the agreement.

Sanya’s argument alleges that the stricken language in the statement of facts bound the Government not to argue that Sanya was involved with hundreds of thousands of dollars of loss and hundreds of fraudulent transactions. This is simply not the case. In fact, the plea agreement contemplated the Government’s ability to advocate for losses in excess of $400,000, and stated the Government had the right to bring to the court’s attention all relevant information regarding Sanya’s conduct. The Government in fact did argue for losses over $400,000, without objection by trial counsel that it was in violation of the plea agreement. This argument is patently frivolous. In summary, after reviewing the entirety of the record at resentencing, we are not convinced that the court plainly erred in considering the contested testimony and transactions on the spreadsheets. There is no false or misleading testimony or violation of the plea agreement evident in the record when viewed as a whole. Thus, we find no plain error on these related arguments.

Next, we consider the reasonableness of the sentence imposed for the conspiracy to commit access device fraud. This court reviews any criminal sentence, “whether inside, just outside, or significantly outside the Guidelines range,” for reasonableness, “under a deferential abuse-of-discretion standard.” United States v. King, 673 F.3d 274, 283 (4th Cir.2012); see Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51, 128 S.Ct. 586, 169 L.Ed.2d 445 (2007). The first step in procedural reasonableness review is to evaluate the district court’s Sentencing Guidelines calculations. Gall, 552 U.S. at 51, 128 S.Ct. 586. With regard to the calculation of the Guidelines range, we “review the [sentencing] court’s factual findings for clear error, its legal conclusions de novo, and unpre-served arguments for plain error.” United States v. Strieper, 666 F.3d 288, 292 (4th Cir,2012) (internal citations omitted).

Sanya only challenges the calculation of loss. The sentencing court “need only make a reasonable estimate of the loss.” USSG 2B1.1 cmt. n.3(C); see United States v. Keita, 742 F.3d 184, 192 (4th Cir.2014) (recognizing that the loss amount “need not be determined with precision” (internal quotation marks omitted)). We conclude that the court was justified in relying upon the Government’s loss spreadsheets. As Mengedoht’s testimony revealed, every transaction on the Limnios spreadsheet could in some way be linked to direct video/photographic evidence. In the vast majority of instances, Detective Mengedoht had direct video evidence of Limnios (or one of the known conspirators) using a stolen credit card number.

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Related

Napue v. Illinois
360 U.S. 264 (Supreme Court, 1959)
Anders v. California
386 U.S. 738 (Supreme Court, 1967)
North Carolina v. Pearce
395 U.S. 711 (Supreme Court, 1969)
Alabama v. Smith
490 U.S. 794 (Supreme Court, 1989)
United States v. Olano
507 U.S. 725 (Supreme Court, 1993)
Gall v. United States
552 U.S. 38 (Supreme Court, 2007)
United States v. Strieper
666 F.3d 288 (Fourth Circuit, 2012)
United States v. King
673 F.3d 274 (Fourth Circuit, 2012)
Setser v. United States
132 S. Ct. 1463 (Supreme Court, 2012)
United States v. Mohammed Keita
742 F.3d 184 (Fourth Circuit, 2014)
United States v. John Nania
724 F.3d 824 (Seventh Circuit, 2013)
United States v. Oluwaseun Sanya
774 F.3d 812 (Fourth Circuit, 2014)

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Bluebook (online)
652 F. App'x 168, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-oluwaseun-sanya-ca4-2016.