United States v. GilbergUnited States v. Gilberg
Defendant Gary S. Gilberg challenges several district court rulings relating to his trial and sentencing for conspiring to make, and making, false statements to financial institutions in order to procure mortgage loan financing,
see
I
BACKGROUND
During the 1980s, after borrowing almost $5 million which he agreed to repay from future condominium sale proceeds, Gilberg launched Chancery Court, a forty-unit condominium project in Lynn, Massachusetts. Condominium sales did not proceed apace, however, and Gilberg decided to lure prospective buyers by promising to obtain 100% mortgage financing for them, obviating the need for down payments. To this end, Gil-berg would inflate the purchase price stated on the sales agreement which he submitted to the bank in support of the buyer’s mortgage loan application. A so-called “amended” sales agreement, containing the true purchase price, would be retained in Gilberg’s private files, and the buyer was told not to mention the “amendment” to the bank. On other occasions, Gilberg provided prospective buyers with second mortgage financing, which he concealed from the first-mortgage lenders by instructing his attorney not to record the second mortgages, or to record them late. Gilberg attended each loan closing, personally signing HUD-1 settlement statements which he knew to contain false information. These means enabled Gilberg to sell thirty-seven condominium units, which were financed through various banks.
In August 1993, Gilberg was indicted in one count for conspiring to make false statements on twenty-one loan applications to three FDIC-insured financial institutions,
see
II
DISCUSSION
A. The Trial Related Rulings
1. “Good faith” Jury Instruction
Gilberg first contends that the final jury instruction misdefined the
mens rea
element in
Gilberg eoncededly raised no objection to the jury instruction.
See
Though the statutory interpretation posited by Gilberg is dubious at best,
cf., e.g., United States v. Wilcox,
2. Motion in Limine
Gilberg next assigns error in the district court order precluding evidence that the defrauded banks had relied exclusively on property appraisals in determimng whether to approve loan applications, and not on the apparent absence of “discounts” and second mortgage financing. He claims that this ruling prejudiced him because the excluded evidence would have bolstered his “good faith” defense. See supra Section II.A.1. 2
Once again we review for plain error, since Gilberg first raised this claim on appeal.
See Hurley,
B. The Sentencing Rulings
1. Amount of Loss (U.S.S.G. § 2F1.1)
Gilberg contеnds that the district court committed three errors in calculating *19 the amount of loss under the then-applicable version of U.S.S.G. § 2F1.1, and that the combined effect of its miscalculations ballooned the total loss from $1-2 million to the $2-5 million range, which in turn led the court to make a ten-level (rather than a nine-level) upward adjustment in his base offense level of six. 3
First, Gilberg argues that the loss calculation should not have included $726,637 in accrued mortgage loan interest.
See
U.S.S.G. § 2F1.1, comment, (n. 7) (excluding from the loss calculation the “interest the victim could have earned”);
United States v. Hoyle,
2. The “Role in Offense” Enhancement
Gilberg challenges the four-level upward adjustment based on his role in the offense,
see
U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1, contending that the government improperly singled him out for prosecution by cutting deals with the real “leаders” of the Chancery Court scheme — his attorney and a business partner. Second, he complains that the district court failed to make express findings of fact regarding the
comparative responsibilities
of the participants in the scheme. We review for “clear error,”
see United States v. Akitoye,
Gilberg concedes that the evidence could support a rational inference that he orchestrated the criminal conduct alleged in the indictment. The evidence disclosed that he was a sophisticated real estate developer who supplied false purchase prices to his attorney, instructed his attorney and prospective buyers to conceal his false statements, and secreted the documentation containing the actual terms. Gilberg cites no authority — nor is there any — for the proposition that a sentencing court must
compare
the responsibilities of all participants before imposing a U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1 enhancement against a defendant. Moreover, in crediting the evidence that Gilberg played the pivotal role in the initial success of the Chancery Court scheme, the district court implicitly found, that Gilberg was an “organizer,” regardless of the precise roles played by each cohort.
See
U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1, comment, (n. 4) (noting that an offense may involve “more than one person who qualifies as a leader or organizer”);
United States v. Tejadatr-Beltran,
*20 3. The Victim and Witness Protection Act
Finally, Gilberg claims that the restitutionary sentence overstates viсtim loss because the class of “victims” is too broad. He points out that the sentencing court ordered restitution in connection with all thirty-one loans, whereas the indictment charged him in relation to only twenty-one loans.
The government concedes that the last criminal conduct involving Gilberg took place no later than June 1990. The Victim and Witness Protection Act (‘VWPA”),
Effective November 29, 1990, Congress broadened the VWPA definition of “victim,”
see
Pub.L. No. 101-647, § 2509, 104 Stat. 4789, 4863, 4931 (Nov. 29, 1990) (Crime Control Act of 1990) (codified at
The district court ordered Gilberg to make restitution to banks other than the three FDIC-insured banks involved in the twenty-one insured loans which formed the entire basis for the conspiracy and the substantive counts upon which Gilberg was convicted. The parties agree that, under the 1987 version of the VWPA as interpreted in Hughey, the restitution order imposed on Gilberg would be improper, and that “approximately $2 million” would be the maximum permissible “victim loss” calculation.
The government nonetheless contends that the district court order complies with the
1990
VWPA.
See Hughey,
Normally, we review restitution orders only for “abuse of discretion.”
See United States v. Benjamin,
a) “Error”
The first
Olano
criterion — that there be “error,”
Olano,
b) Obviousness of Error
The government argues that retrоactive application of the 1990 VWPA amendments would not constitute “obvious” error,
see Olano,
The
Rice
and
Arnold
cases are factually and legally inapposite to the present context. The retroactivity issue in
Rice
ultimately turned on a
different
1990 VWPA amend
ment
— not implicated in our case — which provided that “[t]he court may also order restitution in any criminal case to the extent agreed to by the parties in a
plea agreement
The Fifth Circuit employed the same analysis in
Arnold,
As the government correctly notes, we have yet to address this precise question. In
Cronin,
The implicit concessions of nonretroactivity in
Cronin
and
Newman
apparently stemmed from the government’s acknowledgement that retroactive apрlication of -
c) “Miscarriage of Justice”
Although
Olano
entrusts remediation of plain error to the sound discretion of the reviewing court, the courts of appeals “should not” exercise their discretion unless a forfeited error results in “ ‘a miscarriage of justice,’ or “‘seriously affect[s] the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings.’ ”
Olano,
In all events, the VWPA expressly limits restitutionary relief to
“victims
of [the] offense [of conviction].”
The sentence is modified to require restitution in the amount of $2,107,406. The district court judgment is affirmed, as modified.
Notes
.
Morissette v. United States,
. We do not understand Gilberg to argue that the excluded evidence was relevant to the discredited "complicity” defense, namely, that any bank officials’ knowing particiрation in the scheme would exonerate Gilberg under § 1014.
See United States v. Johnson,
. Although normally a loss determination under U.S.S.G. § 2F1.1 is fact-based and subject to clear error review,
see United States
v.
Goodchild,
. Given the concession by the government that apрlication of Hughey would result in a $1.6 million reduction in the restitution order, we conclude that Gilberg has shouldered his burden on the third Olano factor — "prejudice.” See supra Section II.A.1. We therefore confine our “plain error” analysis to the three remaining Olano factors (i.e., error, "obviousness," and “manifest miscarriage of justice”).
. It is noteworthy that the
Olano
Court explicitly reserved decision on whether an error that becomes clear after trial, but priоr to review by the court of appeals, may be considered “obvious."
Olano,
. Gilberg's remaining challenges to the restitution order do not meet the "plain error” standard. First, he argues that the district court erroneously assessed the loss occasioned the lenders by using the price the lender
received
on resale following foreclosure, rather than the foreclosure рrice
bid
by the lender. This issue has not yet been addressed in the First
Circuit.
The circuit court decisions cited by Gilberg are inapposite, simply holding that the sentencing court should be waiy of basing restitution on the resale
*23
price where the lender acquired real estate at foreclosure but does not resell for years.
See, e.g., United States
v.
Holley,
Second, Gilberg contends that the district court failed to make explicit findings on his ability to pay restitution. See .
. Since loss calculations under U.S.S.G. § 2F1.1 are based on criteria different from the VWPA victim loss criteria, see, e.g., id. § 2B1.3 (providing that “relevant conduct," for guideline sentencing purposes, may encompass conduct not charged in indictment, and conduct underlying the counts upon which defendant was acquitted), the reduction in Gilberg’s restitutionary sentence requires no readjustment in the offense level. See supra Section II.B.l.