United States v. Ryan Masters

613 F. App'x 618
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJune 3, 2015
Docket13-10581
StatusUnpublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 613 F. App'x 618 (United States v. Ryan Masters) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth 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. Ryan Masters, 613 F. App'x 618 (9th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM **

Defendant Ryan Masters appeals his conviction for four counts of possession of 15 or more counterfeit or unauthorized access devices in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1029(a)(3) and (c)(l)(A)(i), one count of conspiracy to possess such devices in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371, and one count of aggravated identity theft during and in relation to these possession offenses in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1028A(a)(l). Masters also challenges various aspects of his sentence and accompanying restitution order. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

The district court did not abuse its discretion when it concluded that the chat log was properly authenticated under Rule 901(a) of the Federal Rules of Evidence because a reasonable juror could conclude that the user ‘Veovis” was Ryan Masters from the multiple references made to Masters and his email account, veovis@gmail. com, throughout the chat log. See United States v. Tank, 200 F.3d 627, 630-31 (9th Cir.2000). Although the user “TuzzTuzz” *621 suggested that he thought he was speaking to someone else at one point in the conversation, Veovis immediately responded “This is Ryan.”

Viewing the evidence .in the light most favorable’ to the prosecution, see Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), a jury could reasonably conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Masters possessed 15 or more access devices from Whitaker Bank (Count Two) and Account- Now (Count Three) that were capable of being used, see United States v. Onyesoh, 674 F.3d 1157, 1159-60 (9th Cir.2012), based on emails indicating'that at least 50 of. the Whitaker Bank cards had positive' balances, and testimony that Account Now had issued each of the 996 customer card numbers Masters provided to Newsome to customers, even if some of the card numbers were expired. See id.

The district court did not plainly err when it determined that a reasonable jury could conclude that Masters possessed the unauthorized, access devices “knowingly and with intent to defraud,” 18 U.S.C. § 1029(a), because the record reflects that Masters obtained the access device information for the purpose of fraudulently obtaining merchandise that he would later resell. See United States v. Sullivan, 522 F.3d 967, 971-75 (9th Cir.2008) (per curiam). The government was not required to prove that the scheme succeeded in order to prove that Masters had the requisite intent to defraud. See United States v. Utz, 886 F.2d 1148, 1150-51 (9th Cir.1989) (per curiam).

The district court did not plainly err when it determined that a reasonable jury could find that Masters entered into a conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 to commit an offense under 18 U.S.C. § 1029(a). Given the evidence that Masters provided Newsome with unauthorized credit card numbers when Newsome complained of being broke, and that Masters invited TuzzTuzz to work as a team with him and Newsome, the jury could reasonably infer that Masters had an implicit agreement with others to engage in criminal activity, took overt acts to implement the agreement, and had the requisite intent to commit credit card fraud. See Sullivan, 522 F.3d at 976.

The district court did not clearly err when it applied a 14-level sentencing enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2Bl.l(b)(l)(H) because the district court’s determination that Masters intended more than $400,000 of loss was “a reasonable estimate of the loss based on the available information.” See United States v. Zolp, 479 F.3d 715, 719 (9th Cir.2007); see also U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1 cmt. n. 3(A)(i)-(ii). The record supports the district court’s conclusion that Masters obtained a total of 493 unauthorized usable access devices from the Aruba Hotel and Account Now, which each resulted in a minimum of $500 of loss pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1 cmt. n. 3(F)(i), for a total intended loss of $246,500. Likewise, the district court reasonably attributed $122,715 of intended loss to Whitaker Bank based on evidence that Masters obtained 909 usable unauthorized access devices. Finally, even if the district court added only the $95,866.87 of actual loss suffered by Best Buy on account of Masters’s fraud instead of the intended loss to Best Buy, the total loss attributable to Masters would be more than $400,000. The imposition of this 14-level enhancement for loss did not overstate the seriousness of. Masters’s offense.

The district court did not err when it applied a 2-level sentencing enhancement for a crime involving 10 or more victims under U.S.S.G. § 2Bl.l(b)(2)(A)(i). In addition to using the information of *622 Best Buy, American Express, the Aruba Hotel, Whitaker Bank, Account Now, Chase Bank, Wells Fargo, and John Bail-lis, none of which Masters disputes, Masters also unlawfully obtained the full credit profile of Jennifer Paprocky from Tuzz-Tuzz — a profile that was subsequently used without Paprocky’s permission on two occasions — and unlawfully used the name of Ruth Jones, each of which is a “means of identification.” See id. § 2B1.1 cmt. n. 4(E).

The district court did not err when it imposed the 2-level “sophisticated means” sentencing enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2Bl.l(b)(10)(C) because Masters’s use of the Credit Master software to generate hundreds of credit card numbers, was at least as “especially complex” as the fabrication of documents and the use of bank accounts of others, see United States v. Horob, 735 F.3d 866, 872 (9th Cir.2013) (per curiam) (quoting U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1 cmt. n. 9(B)), or the production of false invoices and falsified carbon copies of checks, see United States v. Tanke, 743 F.3d 1296, 1307 (9th Cir.2014).

The district court did not err when it calculated three criminal history points for Masters’s prior conviction' for a scheme to defraud in Florida because Masters was sentenced to 24 months after his parole was revoked. U.S.S.G.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
613 F. App'x 618, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-ryan-masters-ca9-2015.