United States v. Peter G. Archibald

212 F. App'x 788
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedDecember 6, 2006
Docket06-11882
StatusUnpublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 212 F. App'x 788 (United States v. Peter G. Archibald) 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. Peter G. Archibald, 212 F. App'x 788 (11th Cir. 2006).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Appellant Peter G. Archibald (“Archibald”) challenges his convictions for knowingly and fraudulently concealing the assets of a bankruptcy estate, 18 U.S.C. § 152(1), and knowingly and fraudulently making a false oath in relation to a bankruptcy case, 18 U.S.C. § 152(2). Archibald raises a number of issues on appeal. First, he challenges the sufficiency of the criminal indictment pursuant to which he was charged. Archibald also argues that the district court erred in admitting certain evidence against him at trial and that the district court erred in calculating the amount of the monetary loss for purposes of the Sentencing Guidelines. Finally, he contends that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to sustain his convictions. We AFFIRM.

I. BACKGROUND

Archibald and his wife owned all of the stock in Rooster’s Barnyard, Inc. (“Rooster’s”), a closely held corporation operating as an adult entertainment club in Atlanta, Georgia. Although Rooster’s was a viable business, Archibald and his wife had minimal involvement in the day-to-day management of the club. The couple resided in St. Simon’s Island, Georgia and received regular income from the club’s operations. In addition to his ownership interest in Rooster’s, Archibald owned restaurants in St. Simon’s and Jekyll Island, Georgia, and commercial property in Glynn County, Georgia.

Due to financial difficulties, in December 2003 Archibald and his wife jointly filed a Voluntary Bankruptcy Petition with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Georgia. The Archi-balds sought protection pursuant to Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code (“the Code”). 1 In connection with Schedule B of *790 their petition, the Archibalds were required to itemize all of their assets, including the value of their interest in any shares of stock, and to provide the market value for each asset listed. The Archi-balds listed Rooster’s as an asset on the Schedule and indicated that the current market value of their interest in the company was $2,000.

Subsequent to the bankruptcy filing, Coastal Bank of Georgia (“Coastal Bank”), one of the Archibalds’ secured creditors, filed with the bankruptcy court a motion to dismiss the bankruptcy petition. Coastal Bank argued that the total amount of the Archibalds’ debt exceeded the amount set forth in section 109(e) of the Code, and that therefore the couple was ineligible for Chapter 13 protection. Coastal Bank also argued that the Archibalds knew that a Chapter 13 filing was inappropriate based on their circumstances, and that they had filed for bankruptcy with bad faith. Accordingly, Coastal Bank asked that the petition be dismissed with prejudice.

The bankruptcy court held a hearing on the motion in January 2004 and Archibald testified in support of his petition. During cross-examination, Archibald stated that he and his wife were the sole owners of 100% of the stock of Rooster’s. He then stated that the company was worth about four million dollars. When Archibald was asked why he listed the market value of Rooster’s as $2,000 on his bankruptcy petition — when the company had zero debt and a value of around $4 million — Archibald first testified that $2,000 was the amount that he originally invested in the business. When further queried by the court, Archibald stated that he had listed the value at $2,000 because that was the value of “the last license” that the club obtained in Dekalb County. Exh. 11 at 23. After again confirming on cross-examination that the actual value of Rooster’s was closer to $4 million, the court dismissed the Archibalds’ Chapter 13 petition. Finding that the Archibalds had abused the bankruptcy process, the court dismissed the petition with prejudice.

After the hearing, the bankruptcy trustee referred the Archibalds’ case to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which began investigating the discrepancy between the $2,000 valuation of Rooster’s on the Archibalds’ Chapter 13 filing and Archibald’s subsequent testimony at the bankruptcy hearing. Pursuant to that investigation, FBI agent Mark Alig interviewed Archibald and his wife. When Agent Alig asked Archibald about the $2,000 valuation listed on the bankruptcy petition, Archibald first claimed that he was instructed by a friend in Atlanta to place that valuation on the business. Later in the interview Archibald stated that he did not know why the $2,000 figure appeared in his bankruptcy filing, but that his bankruptcy counsel had instructed him to attach that value to the club. Finally, Archibald indicated that he valued Rooster’s at $2,000 because that was the amount that he had initially invested in the company. Despite these differing stories concerning the $2,000 valuation, Archibald reiterated to the federal agent his belief that the actual “market value of the property was four million dollars.” R5 at 61.

On 14 July 2005 a federal grand jury issued a two-count indictment against Ar *791 chibald and his wife, charging them with knowingly and fraudulently concealing property belonging to the bankruptcy estate, 18 U.S.C. § 152(1), and knowingly and fraudulently making a false oath in connection with a bankruptcy case, 18 U.S.C. § 152(2) — namely, the failure to disclose the true value of Rooster’s. A trial by jury was held in November 2005. Because the evidence presented at trial showed that Archibald’s wife had no involvement in either the preparation of the Chapter 13 bankruptcy nor in the putative valuation of Rooster’s, Archibald’s wife moved for a judgment of acquittal prior to jury deliberations, and her motion was granted. The jury found Archibald guilty of both counts set forth in the indictment.

The probation officer prepared a pre-sentence investigation report (PSI), recommending a base offense level of 6 because Archibald’s crime involved “fraud and deceit.” See U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1. The PSI also stated that the loss intended by Archibald’s offense had been $4,000,000, the value of the concealed asset. Accordingly, the probation officer recommended an 18-level enhancement based on the loss amount being greater than $2,500,000. See U.S.S.G. § 2Bl.l(b)(l)(J). The probation officer further recommended a two-level enhancement because the offense involved fraudulent action during a bankruptcy proceeding, see U.S.S.G. § 2Bl.l(b)(8)(B), and a two-level enhancement for obstruction of justice, see U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1, resulting in a total offense level of 28.

At the sentencing hearing, the government modified its position concerning the total amount of loss intended by Archibald’s conduct. Specifically, the government lowered its estimate of the total monetary loss, agreeing that the intended loss amount should be capped at the total debt that Archibald claimed on his bankruptcy petition — in this case, between “1.6 and 1.9 million dollars.” R7 at 56. Accordingly, the government recommended that Archibald’s sentence be enhanced by only 16 levels pursuant to U.S.S.G.

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Bluebook (online)
212 F. App'x 788, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-peter-g-archibald-ca11-2006.