United States v. Bazemore

Defendant was convicted of mail fraud for his part in a scheme to procure life insurance policies by misrepresenting the applicants’ net worths and their intention to transfer the policies to a third party. On remand for resentencing, the district court applied an 18-level enhancement to defendant's base offense level due to the actual loss caused by defendant's scheme to insurers and a lender. With respect to the district court’s findings on the insurers’ actual loss, the court concluded that neither the law of the case doctrine nor the mandate rule required a finding of zero actual loss by the insurers at resentencing. The court also concluded that defendant did not waive his challenges to the actual loss suffered by the lender; the district court did not err when it declined to factor Portigon’s sale of its portfolio to EAA into its actual loss calculation and instead calculated the actual loss amount based on the time of the first sentencing; the district court’s decision to base its actual loss calculation solely on the inactive policy loans was a “reasonable estimate of the loss” based on the information available to the court; and the district court did not commit clear error in finding that the actual losses to the insurers and the lender were “reasonably foreseeable pecuniary harm that resulted from [Bazemore’s] offense.” Finally, the court concluded that defendant waived his arguments regarding the proffer agreement and waived his Apprendi challenge. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "United States v. Bazemore" on Justia Law