Lead Opinion
Almа Williams (“Williams”) appeals her convictions for five counts of wire fraud and one count of theft concerning programs receiving federal funds [hereinafter “federal funds theft”], in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1343 and 666, and the resulting 33-month sentence imposed by the district court. On appeal, Williams argues that her convictions violate the Double Jeopardy Clause. Williams also argues that the evidence at trial was insufficient to support a conviction, and that the district court constructively amended the indictment, improperly admitted evidence, and improperly applied three sentencing adjustments. For the following reasons, we affirm Williams’s convictions, but vacate her sentence and remand this case back to the district court for resentencing consistent with this opinion.
I. BACKGROUND
Williams was the Executive Director and Chief Financial Director of Eastside Training Academy (“ETA”) in Valdosta, Georgia. ETA, a non-profit organization incorporated in the State of Georgia, primarily provides pre-kindergartеn child care and infant daycare. Williams’s husband, Bun-nis Williams, was the Chief Executive Officer and President of the Board of Directors of ETA.
In late 2000, Williams agreed to manage two federal programs, the Foster Grandparent Program and the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, under ETA’s sponsorship. To that end, Williams applied for and received federal grants from the Corporation for National and Community Service (“CNCS”). CNCS is an independent federal agency that administers and dispenses federal grant funds to support local programs fostering volunteer and community service activities. CNCS granted funds to ETA for the limited purpose of organizing senior volunteers to engage in community service in schools, hospitals and museums.
During 2001, CNCS wired approximately $320,000 in federal grants to ETA’s account for its management of the Foster Grandparent Program and the Retired Senior Volunteer Program. ETA’s use of the grant funds was limited to the direct costs of managing these programs, including mileage reimbursements and small stipends to low-incomе senior volunteers, and salaries for a full-time project director, full-time coordinators, and a part-time bookkeeper. CNCS also authorized ETA to spend grant funds on certain administrative overhead costs that CNCS had pre-approved and built into the budgets for each program. Grant rules prohibited service providers such as ETA from using
As we describe in further detail later in this opinion, ETA spent federal grant money on unauthorized items such as Williams’s salary, checks made payable to Bunnis Williams, general ETA operating expenses, rent and utilities for facilities not being used by the federal grant programs, and plumbing work for one of Williams’s separate rental properties. Despite CNCS restrictions, ETA spent approximately one-third, or $101,000, of grant funds on unauthorized expenditures.
A federal grand jury charged Williams and her husband with seven counts of wire fraud, one count of federal funds theft, and aiding and abetting each other thereto, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §§ 1343, 666, and 2. At trial, the government showed that Williams had primary authority over ETA finances and that she had direct control over the bookkeepers who managed the federal grant funds. The evidence showed how the bookkeepers, following Williams’s orders, charged unapproved, personal expenditures to the federal grant programs using a percentage-based formula that Williams devised. In support of her good faith defense, Williams testified that she was unaware that her use of the grant funds was improper and that she did not intend to defraud the government. The jury convicted Williams on five counts of-wire fraud and on the federal funds theft count, but it acquitted Bunnis Williams of all charges.
To determine Williams’s advisory guideline sentence, the district court applied four upward adjustments to Williams’s base offense level: (1) a two-level aggravating role adjustment; (2) a two-level abuse of trust adjustment; (3) a two-level obstruction of justice adjustment; and (4) an еight-level adjustment for the amount of loss. After applying these adjustments, the district court sentenced Williams to thirty-three months imprisonment, the bottom of the applicable guidelines range.
II. DISCUSSION
A. Double Jeopardy
Williams first contends that her separate convictions for wire fraud and federal funds theft violate the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment because the factual basis of her theft conviction is “part and parcel” of the scheme to defraud underlying her conviction for wire fraud. She also asserts that her convictions on multiple counts of wire fraud constitute double jeopardy.
We review claims of constitutional error de novo. United States v. Brown,
Williams did not raise her double jeopardy arguments to the district court. Although she failed to raise the claims, Williams made no affirmative steps to voluntarily waive them. See Lewis,
As a threshold matter, “[w]e will correct a plain error when (1) an error has occurred, (2) the error was plain, and (3) the error affected substantial rights.” Lewis,
We analyze issues of double jeopardy under the test set forth by the Supreme Court in Blockburger v. United States,
1. Convictions for Wire Fraud and Federal Funds Theft
Under 18 U.S.C. § 1343, wire fraud requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt that (1) the defendant participated in a scheme or artifice to defraud; (2) with the intent to defraud; and (3) used, or caused the use of, interstate wire transmissions for the purpose of executing the scheme or artifice to defraud.
2. Convictions for Multiple Counts of Wire Fraud
Likewise, we find no error in Williams’s convictions on multiple counts of wire fraud because each count satisfies the Blockburger test. Williams argues that the indictment was multiplicitous becаuse it alleged only one scheme to defraud, which the government manipulated into separate counts with each wire of grant funds into ETA’s account. Williams’s argument fails because it rests on a fundamental misinterpretation of the wire fraud statute.
An indictment is multiplicitous if it charges a single offense in more than one count. Ward v. United States,
Wire fraud requires proof of a scheme or artifice to defraud and the use of interstate wire transmissions in furtherance of the scheme. 18 U.S.C. § 1343. Section 1343 targets not the defendant’s creation of a scheme to defraud, but the defendant’s execution of a scheme to defraud. To that end, it punishes each interstate wire transmission that carries out that scheme. See Sibley v. United States,
Moreover, the text of § 1343 plainly states that the defendant need not make a
Precedent under the mail fraud and bank fraud statutes, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1344, respеctively, supports this conclusion.
Here, the indictment charged Williams with devising “a scheme and artifice to defraud and obtain money by means of false and fraudulent pretenses .... ” R. 1, Doc. 1 at 3-4. It further charged Williams with “executing [this] scheme and artifice to defraud [by] knowingly ... and willfully causfing] [CNCS] and the United States Department of Health and Human Services, to send electronic wire transfers of funds ... to the business account of
Williams points to United States v. Eaves,
Eaves is inapposite to this case. As we have explained above, § 1343 punishes not the creation of a scheme to defraud, but each execution of that scheme by use of interstate wire transmissions. In this case, ETA, through Williams, submitted two applications for federal grants to CNCS. After CNCS approved ETA’s budget applications, the funds were wired into ETA’s account on a quarterly schedule during 2001. The wire transfers occurred well before CNCS began its investigation of ETA in 2002, and the record reveals no evidence of the governmеnt’s manipulation of the wire transfers or bad faith. For these reasons, we find that Williams’s indictment for seven counts of wire fraud was not multiplicitous, and that her prosecution and subsequent convictions on five of those counts did not constitute double jeopardy.
Williams next argues that the evidence not only failed to establish her intent to steal or defraud, but also failed to rebut her good faith defense. In support of her defense, Williams testified that her misapplication of grant funds was due to her honest misunderstanding of grant rules and conditions, and that she ordered ETA bookkeepers to modify Quickbook records, in good faith, once she learned of her previous accounting errors. In addition, Williams claims that the prosecution failed to meet its burden of proof because it did not establish any financial loss suffered by the victim of her fraud.
We review de novo challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence in criminal trials, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government. United States v. Futrell,
We first examine the government’s theory of prosecution in determining the sufficiency of the evidence. United States v. Ross,
The government presented sufficient evidence, direct and circumstantial, to prove Williams’s intent to defraud. During trial, the government showed that under Williams’s direction, the ETA issued a $15,000 check payable to the order of P.R. Property Investments, the umbrella name for Williams’s private rental properties. The evidence also showed that Williams authorized checks to be used for other unapproved items, such as a personal salary, payments on Bunnis Williams’s car note, rent payments on Williams’s night club, expenses related to their new home, and construction work on ETA grounds unrelated to the federal programs. Furthermore, the evidence revealed that Williams fired ETA employees after they questioned, and later reported, her mismanagement of ETA’s account.
During 2001, CNCS made seven wire transfers disbursing grant funds into ETA’s account, totaling $320,081. Although grant rules did not require ETA to maintain the grant funds in a separate account, the rules did mandate that ETA keep detailed records tracking the expenditure of grant money to ensure that grant funds were spent only on approved pro
The evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to the government, was sufficient to allow a reasonable juror to find Williams’s guilt for wire fraud and federal funds theft beyond a reasonable doubt. Although Williams testified that she lacked knowledge that her actions were wrongful, the jurors were the sole judges of credibility and were free to discredit her testimony and reject her good faith defense. See Conklin v. Schofield,
Williams’s argument that the evidence is insufficient because the government failed to show financial loss suffered by CNCS also fails. Wire fraud does not require the government to prove actual financial loss or that the defendant benefited from her scheme. See Ross,
We conclude from our review of the record that the evidence was sufficient to prove William’s intent to defraud, as well as the requisite elements of wire fraud and federal funds theft. A rational finder of fact could infer from the evidence that Williams knowingly devised and participated in a scheme to defraud CNCS by applying for grant funds with the promise to use them only for approved program expenditures, and that she caused wire transfers to be made in furtherance of her scheme. A reasonable jury also could infer that in her position as an agent of ETA, Williams embezzled, stole, obtained by fraud, intentionally misapplied, or knowingly converted approximately $100,000 of federal funds belonging to the Foster Grandparent Program and Retired Senior Volunteer Program.
C. Pattern Jury Instructions and Constructive Amendment
Williams contends that the district court’s jury instructions created a con
A constructive amendment to the indictment resulting from the district court’s jury instructions is per se reversible error. See Stirone v. United States,
The indictment charged Williams and her husband, Bunnis Williams, with aiding and abetting each other, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2, in conjunction with seven counts of wire fraud and one count of federal funds theft. Williams argues that the district court’s jury instructions constructively amended the indictment to allow a jury to find her guilty of aiding and abetting someone other than her husband.
We find no such error from our review of the instructions. The district court instructed the jury as fоllows:
[I]f the acts or conduct of an agent, employee, or other associate of a defendant are willfully directed or authorized by such defendant, or if a defendant aids and abets another person by willfully joining together with that person in the commission of the crime, then the law holds such defendant responsible for the conduct of that other person just as though the defendant had personally engaged in the conduct.
R. 6 at 18.
The district court has discretion in the wording and style of the jury instructions, so long as the instructions accurately reflect the law. Starke,
We must analyze jury instructions in the context of the evidence presented and the government’s theory at trial to determine whether a constructive amendment to the indictment has occurred. In the context of the evidence presented in this case, the instructions did not allow the jury to find that the bookkeepers — -who were never charged with criminal wrongdoing — were principally culpable for wire fraud and federal funds theft and to base Williams’s guilt on her aiding and abetting the bookkeepers she directed. Such a reading of the jury instructions is untenable in light of the prosecution’s theory and evidence. We therefore reject Williams’s claim that the instruction rеsulted in a constructive amendment and find no error in the district court’s use of the pattern instruction.
D. Admission of Evidence
Williams claims, for the first time on appeal, that the district court erred in admitting evidence of her failure to follow the terms and conditions for the federal program grants and other regulatory violations. Because Williams failed to object timely to the introduction of this evidence at trial, we review this issue for plain error. United States v. Baker,
Under the Federal Rules of Evidence, evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is inadmissible character evidence that may not be used to prove a person’s propensity to act. Fed.R.Evid. 404(b). Such evidence “may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, idеntity, or absence of mistake or accident! ]....” Id. In this case, Williams argued a good faith defense, claiming that her misuse of federal grant funds was nothing more than an inadvertent mistake. In rebuttal, the government offered evidence of Williams’s history of non-compliance with federal grant regulations to prove her intent to defraud, establish her knowledge and show lack of mistake. The court gave appropriate instructions, both immediately after it admitted the evidence and in the final charge, limiting the jury’s consideration of this evidence to determining Williams’s intent and whether she committed the acts by accident or mistake. We therefore find that the district court did not commit plain error by admitting this evidence under Rule 404(b).
E. Application of Offense Level Adjustments
We apply a two-pronged standard to review claims that the district court erroneously applied sentencing guidelines adjustments. First, we review the factual findings underlying the district court’s sentencing determination for clear error. United States v. Walker,
1. Aggravating-Role Adjustment
Williams argues that the district court erred in applying the two-level aggravating-role adjustment per U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1(c) because her husband’s acquittal on all counts precludes any basis for finding that she was an organizer, leader, manager, or supervisor of one or more other participants.
The federal sentencing guidelines provide for an increase in the defendant’s base offense level by two levels “if the defendant was an organizer, leader, manager, or supervisor in any criminal activity other than described in [subsections] (a) or (b).” U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1(c).
The district court would not have been precluded from applying the § 3B1.1 adjustment merely because Williams’s husband was acquitted on all counts.
The relevant question, therefore, is whether Bunnis Williams was a “participant,” or someone criminally responsible for the commission of Williams’s wire fraud and theft. The district court’s application of § 3B1.1 to determine that a person is a “participant” is a question law that we review de novo, while we review the underlying factual findings for clear error.
In applying the two-level upward adjustment under § 3Bl.l(c), the district court considered, inter alia, Bunnis Williams’s “participation in the scheme.” This record reveals, however, that Bun-nis’s role was de minimis and insufficient to justify a § 3B1.1(c) upward adjustment. At sentencing, the district court found that to accomplish her fraud, Williams directed the accounting entries to cover unauthorized expenses, which included travel expenditures and “loan payments” to Bunnis Williams. The court also found that Bun-nis Williams would often take and use of ETA checks without the bookkeepers’ knowledge and without justifying his expenses.
Assuming, without deciding, that these factual findings are correct, they do not go so far as to establish, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Bunnis Williams was a criminally culpable “participant” in Williams’s wire fraud or federal funds theft. A “participant,” as the guidelines defines the term, is “a person who is criminally responsible for the commission of the offense.” U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1, cmt. n.l. Bunnis’s intent to defraud and steal is a requisitе threshold question for determining his criminal responsibility. Because grant rules expressly permit commingling of funds in ETA’s account and Bunnis Williams was the Chief Executive Officer of ETA, he could have taken funds from ETA’s account, without intending to defraud the government or steal federal funds. Although these facts may amount to unethical conduct, they fall short of demonstrating by a preponderance of the evidence that Bunnis Williams was criminally responsible for his wife’s wire fraud and federal funds theft. See United States v. Yates,
Because the evidence is insufficient as a matter of law to show that Williams was “an organizer, leader, manager, or supervisor of one or more other participants in criminal activity,” we conclude that the district court erred in applying the two-level aggravated-role adjustment under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1(c).
2. Abuse of Position of Trust Adjustment
Williams contends that the district court erred in applying the two-level abuse-of-trust adjustment to her base offense level, per U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3, because she did not occupy a position of public or private trust in relation to' CNCS. The sentencing guidelines provide that the sentencing
Sentencing and reviewing courts must determine whether a defendant occupied a position of trust that justifies the § 3B1.3 upward adjustment by assessing the defendant’s relationship to the victim of the crime. United States v. Garrison,
Where statutory reporting requirements are the only connection between the defendant and the government agency that is the victim, this connection is insufficient to show a fiduciary relationship necessary for a § 3B1.3 adjustment. In Garrison, we held that while the government may have been a victim in a Medicare fraud scheme, an abuse-of-trust adjustment was unjustified because the defendant “did not occupy a sufficiently proximate position of trust relative to Medicare.” Id. at 841. In so holding, we fоund that “statutory reporting requirements do not create a position of trust relative to a victim of the crime.” Id. We confirmed this finding in United States v. Mills,
In addition to this fiduciary prerequisite to the abuse-of-trust adjustment, the guidelines specify that “[t]his adjustment may not be employed if an abuse of trust ... is included in the base offense level or specific offense characteristic.” U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3. This is particularly true where, as here, the underlying offense involves fraud because “ ‘there is a component of misplaced trust inherent in the concept of fraud[.]’ ” Garrison,
The district court found that CNCS, an independent federal agency, was the victim of Williams’s wire fraud and federal funds theft. The record supports this finding, especially considering the amount of loss that CNCS suffered. The court determined that Williams occupied a position of trust vis-a-vis CNCS because as ETA’s Executive Director, she maintained a position of managerial and professional discretion, had little or no supervision, and exercised a high level of authority over ETA employees. These facts, however, show that ETA, not CNCS, entrusted Williams with discretionary authority in the financial management of its funds.
As to CNCS, Williams did not have any discretion as to how federal funds were spent. Rather than permit Williams to use her independent judgment in making program expenditures and later charge them to CNCS in a reimbursement-type scenario, CNCS awarded grant funds only after reviewing and pre-approv-ing a specific line-item budget. Williams’s only obligation was to provide accurate progress status reports demonstrating that ETA spent grant funds in the manner required by CNCS. The record does not show that CNCS — the victim — entered into a fiduciary relationship with Williams and entrusted her with discretion in allocating the federal funds by awarding the grants to ETA.
Nor did the district court find that CNCS placed a special trust in Williams above her obligation to adhere to the terms and conditions for the grants. The district court justified the § 3B1.3 adjustment because CNCS, by administering the grants, relies on the integrity and honesty of the grantees to use the funds appropriately and as outlined in the approved line item budget. Williams’s abuse of this trust as to CNCS is already accounted for in the base offense level for her convictions of wire fraud and federal funds theft. The promise of veracity, often under penalty of perjury, underlies nearly every loan application, grant, or other financial transaction with the federal government. It could not have been intended that § 3B1.3 apply in every case where the defendant receives pecuniary gain by lying to the government.
Because there is no evidence that CNCS entrusted Williams with discretionary authority or placed a special trust, akin to that of a fiduciary, in Williams, the district court erred in applying the abuse-of-trust adjustment based on Williams’s relationship with CNCS. On remand, the district
3. Obstruction of Justice Adjustment
The district court applied a two-level obstruction-of-justice adjustment to Williams’s base offense level because Williams began to amend the accounting system to remove some of the unapproved expenditures after learning of the allegations and the pending investigation. Williams argues that she bore no fraudulent intent when she ordered the reallocation of expenses in Quickbooks, and that she was only correcting her prior misunderstanding of how program expenditures should be classified under government regulations. We reject Williams’s argument.
Section § 3C1.1 provides for an upward adjustment by two levels if the defendant “willfully obstructed or impeded, or attempted to obstruct or impede, the administration of justice with respect to the investigation, prosecution or sentencing of the instant offense of conviction ...U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1. An example of such obstructive conduct is “producing or attempting to produce a false, altered, or counterfeit document or record during an official investigation or official proceeding.” U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1, cmt. n.4. Notwithstanding Williams’s assertion of good faith, there is sufficient evidence in the record to support the district court’s finding that she did in fact direct the bookkeepers to alter the ETA’s accounting records to conceal the unapprоved expenditure of federal funds. The district court’s finding was not clearly erroneous, and we affirm the district court’s application of the § 3C1.1 adjustment.
III. CONCLUSION
Williams’s convictions for five counts of wire fraud and one count of federal funds theft do not violate the Fifth Amendment Double Jeopardy Clause because each count satisfies the Blockburger test. Neither the district court’s admission of evidence nor its final jury charge constituted error, and there is sufficient evidence to support Williams’s convictions. For the foregoing reasons, we affirm Williams’s convictions. As to Williams’s sentence, the district court’s factual findings do not justify application of adjustments for aggravated role or for abuse of trust. Therefore, we vacate Williams’s sentence and remand for resentencing without the upward adjustments under U.S.S.G. §§ 3B1.1(c) and 3B1.3.
AFFIRMED, IN PART; VACATED AND REMANDED, IN PART.
Notes
. 18 U.S.C. § 1343 provides:
Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If the violation affects a financial institution, such person shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.
. 18 U.S.C. § 666 provides, in relevant part:
Whoever, if the circumstance described in subsection (b) of this section exists—
(a)(1) being an agent of an organization ... embezzles, steals, obtains by fraud, or otherwise without authority knowingly converts to the use of any person other than the rightful owner or intentionally misapplies, property that ... is valued at $5,000 or more, and ... is owned by, or is under the care, custody, or control of such organization, government, or agency! ] ... shall befined under this title, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.
(b) The circumstance referred to in subsection (a) ... is that the organization ... receives, in any one year period, benefits in excess of $10,000 under a Federal program involving a grant[ ]....
. In Bonner v. City of Prichard,
. See Carpenter v. United States,
. See, e.g., United States v. Abboud,
. 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a) provides:
Whoever in any way or degree obstructs, delays, or affects commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce, by robbery or extortion or attempts or conspires so to do, or commits or threatens physical violence to any person or property in furtherance of a plan or purpose to do anything in violation of this section shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.
. Requiring ETA and other grantees to maintain federal grant funds in a separate account would have been the easiest and clearest way to track federal funds. By allowing commingling of funds, the grant rules placed a burden on grantees to create a method of separating their expenditures of federal funds from other financial responsibilities, such as unapproved administrative overhead costs. This may be difficult where, as here, the grantеe is operating other programs in addition to the federal grant programs, and may be doing so in the same building. While Williams is fully responsible for her criminal conduct, we wonder why CNCS permits commingling of funds, which may tempt grantees in these circumstances to risk dipping into the pool of available federal funds.
. We note that Williams exercised her right to review the district court’s instructions prior to the final charge and had it amended to include instructions on her theory of defense. Although Williams suggested several modifications, she did not object to the pattern instructions for 18 U.S.C. § 2. Normally, we review challenges to jury instructions not raised at trial for plain error, reversing only if the instructions were “so clearly erroneous as to result in a likelihood of a grave miscarriage of justice or ... seriously affect[ ] the fairness, integrity or public reputation of [the] judicial proceeding.’’ United States v. Fuentes-Coba,
. Because Williams was sentenced on September 18, 2006, all citations to the sentencing commission guidelines, policy statements, commentary, and amendments thereto, are to United Slates Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual (2005), which was in effect on that date.
. U.S.S.G. § 3B 1.1 (a) and (b) provide:
Based on the defendant's role in the offense, increase the offense level as follows:
(a) If the defendant was an organizer or leader of a criminal activity that involved five or more participants or was otherwise extensive, increase by 4 levels.
(b) If the defendant was a manager or supervisor (but not an organizer or leader) and the criminal activity involved five or more participants or was otherwise extensive, increase by 3 levels.
. The Supreme Court has held that "commentary in the Guidelines Manual that interprets or explains a guideline is authoritative unless it violates the Constitution or a federal statute, or is inconsistent with, or a plаinly erroneous reading of, that guideline.” Stinson v. United States,
.At the sentencing hearing, Williams argued against the application of any upward adjustment under § 3B1.1, stating:
If the Court will recall Ms. Williams and her husband were charged with these offenses. In fact, he specifically said, "they aided and abetted each other.” The jury returned a not guilty verdict as to all counts as to Mr. Williams, then we’re left with the theory under the government that she aided and abetted herself.
R. 7 at 16. Although Williams did not specifically state at the sentencing hearing that her husband could not be counted as a “participant” because he was acquitted, this argument was adequately preserved her by her objections, through counsel, at sentencing. See United States v. Massey,
. William appears to argue, on the basis of United States v. Mills,
Concurrence Opinion
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I concur in full in Sections I and 11(A)-(D), (E)(2) and (E)(3) of the majority’s opinion. However, as to Section 11(E)(1), I conclude that the district court’s application of the two-level role enhancement must be affirmed and thus respectfully dissent as to the reversal in Section 11(E)(1).
As the majority opinion notes, Williams on appeal argues that the district court improperly found that her husband was a “participant” for purposes of applying the role enhancement in U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1(c).
Section 3B1.1(c) authorizes a two-level increase in a defendant’s offense level if the defendant was the “organizer, leader, manager, or supervisor in any criminal activity other than described in (a) or (b)....”
According to Williams on appeal, her husband could not be considered a participant because he was acquitted by the jury. I fully agree with the majority opinion that the district court may properly consider an acquitted co-defendant, such as Williams’s husband, to be a participant for § 3B1.1 purposes.
Williams’s argument on appeal that the district court improperly counted her husband as a participant is limited to her husband’s status as a co-defendant acquitted by the jury. Williams’s brief does not argue that the trial evidence was insufficient to support a finding by a preponderance of the evidence that her husband was knowingly involved in the criminal activity for purposes of the § 3Bl.l(c) sentencing enhancement. Thus, I would not reach this issue and would affirm the district court’s аpplication of the § 3B1.1(c) two-level enhancement.
. Subsection (a) of § 3B1.1 provides for a four-level offense level increase if the defen
. Williams did not advance the acquitted-husband argument in the district court. Instead, Williams's objection to the § 3B1.1(c) role enhancement at sentencing was that she had relied in good faith on her bookkeepers and accountant to advise her as to the availability and use of the federal funds and that she was еssentially innocent. Because Williams did not object to the role enhancement on the husband-related grounds urged on appeal, our review should be for plain error. See United States v. Massey,
. Williams challenges the application of the role enhancement as impermissible double-counting. This argument is not addressed by the majority opinion, and, in any event, it is meritless and does not warrant discussion.
