Background

• Alland Philidor and his brother Willman pled guilty to conspiracy to steal government funds and theft of government funds for submitting fraudulent tax returns using stolen SSNs.
• IRS refunds were issued to taxpayers listed by those SSNs and deposited into bank accounts controlled by the Philidors, affecting numerous victims.
• PSI indicated thousands of victims and recommended a six-level enhancement under § 2B1.1(b)(2)(C) for 250+ victims, though only 26 victims were positively identified by the government.
• Philidors objected to the 250+ victims finding, contending the government failed to prove 250 actual living victims by a preponderance.
• District Court overruled the objection and applied the 250+ victims enhancement; Philidors appealed together raising the same issue.
• Court upheld the enhancement, holding the district court did not clearly err and could infer victim status from legitimate inferences about SSN verification and refunds.

Issues

Key Cases Cited

• Gupta v. United States, 572 F.3d 878 (11th Cir. 2009) (standard for reviewing district court factual findings; preponderance burdens when challenged)
• Bennett v. United States, 472 F.3d 825 (11th Cir. 2006) (district court can rely on undisputed PSI facts in sentencing)
• Chavez v. United States, 584 F.3d 1354 (11th Cir. 2009) (court may infer identity verification from ordinary experience)
• Doe v. United States, 661 F.3d 550 (11th Cir. 2011) (government verification of identity; common-sense inference)
• Gomez-Castro v. United States, 605 F.3d 1245 (11th Cir. 2010) (government verifies identifying information; no special proof required)
• Pompey v. United States, 17 F.3d 351 (11th Cir. 1994) (plain meaning of 'actual' in victim definition includes non-fictitious identification)
• Zuniga-Arteaga v. United States, 681 F.3d 1220 (11th Cir. 2012) (aggravated identity theft context; 'actual' means an actual person, living or not)