United States v. Khan, Criminal No. 2016-0096

Defendant Sharafat Ali Khan, a Pakistani national living in Brazil, pleaded guilty to two conspiracies under 18 U.S.C. § 371 for smuggling unauthorized aliens from Pakistan (and other countries) through South/Central America and Mexico into the United States.
Between March 2014 and May 2016 Khan facilitated travel for roughly 25–99 aliens, managed a Brazil safe house, collected smuggling fees (often $3,000–$15,000), and paid/coordinated other smugglers along the route.
Investigative interviews (reported at sentencing) of multiple smuggled aliens described Khan as the primary contact, directing travel, providing other smugglers’ contact information, instructing migrants to surrender at the U.S. border, and referring to other smugglers as “his men.”
Government presented testimony of Special Agent Stempinski summarizing those interviews and Khan’s admissions that he coordinated payments, used WhatsApp to direct migrants, ran the safe house, and identified numerous associates in the network.
The sole disputed sentencing question was whether Khan qualified for a four-level aggravated-role enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1(a) as an organizer/leader of a criminal activity involving five or more participants.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether a § 3B1.1(a) four-level organizer/leader enhancement applies	Gov’t: Khan was the Brazil-based regional leader who organized, coordinated, paid, and controlled a network of smugglers and safe-house staff; he recruited participants and exercised decisionmaking authority	Khan: No evidence he exercised hierarchical control over co-conspirators; relationships were horizontal business arrangements; some workers lacked requisite criminal mens rea	Court applied the four-level enhancement: found by preponderance that Khan organized/coordinated and exercised control over participating smugglers and ran the operation
Whether the court could rely on hearsay interview summaries and agent testimony at sentencing	Gov’t: Agent testimony summarizing multiple migrant interviews and Khan admissions is admissible at sentencing and reliable	Khan: Agent’s recounting is hearsay and unreliable because agent did not conduct interviews in person	Court: Permitted reliance on hearsay at sentencing where it has sufficient indicia of reliability; credited agent testimony given corroboration and Khan’s admissions

United States v. Quigley, 373 F.3d 133 (D.C. Cir.) (enhancement requires hierarchical control over one or more participants)
United States v. Brodie, 524 F.3d 259 (D.C. Cir.) (distinguishes Quigley and affirms organizer/leader enhancement where defendant directed and supervised coconspirators)
United States v. Vega, 826 F.3d 514 (D.C. Cir.) (requires proof coconspirators were participants with culpable involvement)
United States v. Bapack, 129 F.3d 1320 (D.C. Cir.) (government bears burden by preponderance to prove role enhancement)
United States v. Bras, 483 F.3d 103 (D.C. Cir.) (sentencing courts may rely on hearsay with sufficient indicia of reliability)
United States v. Olejiya, 754 F.3d 986 (D.C. Cir.) (organizer/leader requires more than control of property or assets)
United States v. Clark, 747 F.3d 890 (D.C. Cir.) (affirming enhancement where defendant controlled at least one criminal participant)
United States v. Graham, 162 F.3d 1180 (D.C. Cir.) (enumerates relevant factors for assessing role adjustments)
United States v. Hall, 101 F.3d 1174 (7th Cir.) (discusses accessory liability and participation for guideline purposes)