United States v. Isaac Feldman
Opinion of the Court
*1250This appeal requires us to decide several issues-including an issue of first impression in this Circuit about the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment-arising from Isaac Feldman's convictions and sentence for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Feldman invested in two Miami Beach nightclubs that hired foreign women to pose as tourists, attract patrons, and persuade them to buy drinks without paying attention to the clubs' exorbitant prices. A grand jury returned an indictment against Feldman and alleged co-conspirators alleging that the nightclubs' activities included regular acts of wire fraud. After a jury convicted the defendants of some counts but acquitted them of others, we reversed their convictions. See United States v. Takhalov ,
I. BACKGROUND
A grand jury indicted Isaac Feldman and several alleged co-conspirators for one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud,
The clubs operated on a business model that Simchuk had developed in Eastern Europe. The basic hustle was for so-called "B-girls," young women from Eastern Europe who worked for the clubs, to pose as partygoing tourists, trawl Miami Beach for eligible patrons-the ideal targets were well-dressed single men using high-value credit cards-and lure them back to the clubs, where they would be led to spend exorbitant sums on drinks for themselves and the B-girls. The indictment charged a panoply of deceptive or underhanded tactics that the B-girls and bartenders used to increase the customers' bills and to keep them unaware of the charges they were incurring: for example, hiding menus, ordering drinks without the customers' knowledge, ignoring customers' inquiries *1251about prices, lying about prices, hiding the amount on a receipt when requesting a customer's signature, forging customers' signatures, encouraging customers to drink themselves into a stupor, and serving the B-girls shot glasses filled with water when the customers thought they were ordering vodka shots.
Feldman and several alleged co-conspirators pleaded not guilty, and after a joint trial, a jury found Feldman guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. But the jury found Feldman not guilty of the individual counts of wire fraud with which he was charged. The jury also found Feldman guilty of conspiracy to commit money laundering by the international transmission of funds to promote unlawful activity,
The verdict form provided the jury three options with regard to the money-laundering-conspiracy count: "Guilty (Concealment of Payments)," "Guilty (Transmitting & Receiving Funds Internationally)," and "Not Guilty," arranged as follows:
The district court instructed the jury that it could find Feldman guilty under either or both theories, but it had to agree unanimously about any theory it selected. The jury found Feldman guilty of conspiracy to commit money laundering by international transactions and made no other mark, as the image above reflects.
The district court sentenced Feldman to 100 months of imprisonment, which exceeded Feldman's advisory guideline range. The district court determined that an upward variance was warranted based in large part on its finding that Feldman had committed perjury when he testified in his defense.
We reversed Feldman's convictions on the ground that the district court erred when it failed to give a jury instruction requested by the defendants. See Takhalov ,
The government redacted the indictment to charge Feldman individually with the wire-fraud and money-laundering conspiracy counts of which the first jury had found him guilty. Feldman again pleaded not guilty, and he proceeded to an individual trial.
At the second trial, the gist of the government's case was that Feldman was an involved investor with significant managerial authority over the clubs' activities and finances. Simchuk, the most important government witness, testified about the clubs' business model, the manner in which the B-girls and bartenders fleeced customers out of their money, and Feldman's knowing participation in the scheme. Several B-girls testified about incidents in the clubs and the extent of their interactions with Feldman. And the government presented evidence that Feldman helped manage the clubs' finances through his sister, Alex Burrlader, and his accountant, Kim Marks. Burrlader, who worked as Feldman's bookkeeper, was a signatory of the Stars Lounge bank account and kept records of the clubs' finances in her office at Feldman's realty company, including records of "chargebacks," or payments that credit-card companies rescinded after their customers complained that the nightclubs had billed them for unauthorized charges. Marks testified that he had set up a limited-liability company, Ieva Marketing LLC, in the name of B-girl Ieva Koncilo at either Feldman's or Burrlader's request; Simchuk testified that Feldman had managed the creation of the company and that its purpose was to funnel cash payments to the B-girls without having to pay taxes on their earnings.
Feldman did not testify in his own defense as he had at the first trial. He presented a short character-based defense by calling two business associates and his rabbi to testify that he was a naïve and trusting person who would not willingly have joined a fraudulent scheme. Apart from their testimony, Feldman's defense strategy was to try to establish on cross-examination of the government's witnesses that Feldman had no knowledge of any fraud that took place in the nightclubs and that Simchuk's testimony to the contrary was unreliable.
On two occasions, prosecutors made references to the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist and, in particular, the character Fagin, a street criminal who inducted the title character into his band of juvenile pickpockets. During jury selection, the government used Fagin and the children as an example when it asked prospective jurors whether they understood that the ringleader of a conspiracy is guilty of a crime even if he does not personally steal from the targets and whether they would be unwilling to credit a co-conspirator's testimony because he was also a criminal. The government returned to the image of Fagin during its rebuttal closing argument:
I will end with the story of where we began with my colleague .... He talked about the story of Oliver Twist and how the older man, Fag[i]n, would send out his little orphans onto the street to pick people's pockets. Those guys-Fag[i]n wasn't there on the streets picking their pockets. Oleg Simchuk, Isaac Feldman, weren't there when these credit cards were being processed. But did they know it? Did they benefit from it? Absolutely.
Because much of the evidence at the second trial concerned the B-girls' efforts to induce customers to drink to excess, the district court's instructions to the jury included the following paragraph to distinguish *1253between fraudulent and innocent conduct:
The law does not excuse a patron from his obligation to pay for beverages or goods just because he became intoxicated voluntarily. Even if the establishment uses attractive women to encourage a patron to purchase and consume increasing amounts of alcoholic beverages, the patron is not a victim of fraud when he becomes intoxicated voluntarily and later regrets the purchases. But if the establishment forces the patron to consume the alcoholic beverage, or adulterates the beverage, or allows or encourages the patron to become intoxicated with the intent to charge his credit card for purchases he either is unaware of or is too intoxicated to consent to, then such conduct may constitute fraud [emphasis added].
This instruction was written in part by Feldman's attorney and in part by the district court. At the charge conference, Feldman's counsel asked the district court to give the first part of the instruction. The district court agreed to do so but sua sponte proposed adding the emphasized sentence. Feldman's counsel asked the district court to read the sentence again, the district court did so, and Feldman's attorney said, "All right. I have been overruled by my esteemed colleagues at the defense table and that's fine."
The jury found Feldman guilty of both conspiracy counts, including both money-laundering objects. Using the 2016 edition of the United States Sentencing Guidelines, the district court calculated that Feldman's advisory guideline range was 46 to 57 months of imprisonment based on a total offense level of 23 and a criminal-history category of I. The district court's calculations included an eight-level enhancement based on a loss amount greater than $95,000 but not greater than $150,000, see United States Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 2B1.1(b)(1)(E) (Nov. 2016); a two-level enhancement based on a finding that the fraud involved ten or more victims, see
Despite Feldman's lower advisory guideline range, the district court again sentenced Feldman to 100 months of imprisonment. The district court explained its view that "a very significant sentence [was] appropriate in light of the scope of this conspiracy, the significant harm that this crime caused to [the] community and the customers and [the local] tourist industry." It also explained its continued belief that Feldman had committed perjury when he testified at the trial, and it remarked that Feldman "ha[d]n't shown any remorse."
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
Three standards govern our review of this appeal. First, we review de novo an alleged violation of the Double Jeopardy Clause, United States v. Strickland ,
Second, we review alleged errors to which no objection was made at trial only for plain error. See United States v. Gonzalez ,
Third, "[w]e review the reasonableness of a sentence for abuse of discretion using a two-step process." United States v. Cubero ,
III. DISCUSSION
We divide our discussion in five parts. First, we reject Feldman's argument that double jeopardy barred the concealment-based theory of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Second, we explain that the evidence is sufficient to support Feldman's convictions. Third, we explain that the wire-fraud-conspiracy count of the indictment was not constructively amended. Fourth, we reject Feldman's argument that the allusions by prosecutors to the character of Fagin from Oliver Twist deprived him of due process. Fifth, we explain that Feldman's 100-month sentence is procedurally and substantively reasonable.
A. Double Jeopardy Did Not Bar the Concealment-Based Money-Laundering Theory.
Feldman contends that he was twice put in jeopardy for conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering because the jury at his first trial did not find that he was guilty under that theory of the money-laundering-conspiracy charge. The Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment guarantees that "[n]o person shall ... be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." U.S. Const. amend. V. "[B]y its terms," the protection of the clause "applies only if there has been some event, such as an acquittal, which terminates the original jeopardy." Richardson v. United States ,
We have held that when a single count charges two different theories of the offense, a jury's finding that the defendant is not guilty under one theory does not bar retrial under the other theory if the jury fails to reach a verdict about the alternative theory and a mistrial results. See United States v. Rivera ,
Feldman's argument resembles the objection made in Green v. United States ,
The Supreme Court held that Green's retrial on the first-degree charge violated the prohibition against double jeopardy in two ways. See
Despite a superficial resemblance between this appeal and Green -namely, that Feldman was found guilty of only one part of a complex count by a jury that remained silent about another part and was later dismissed-a closer examination reveals that neither of its holdings applies to Feldman. The original jury did not impliedly acquit Feldman of any offense when it found him guilty of the only crime charged in the relevant count, conspiracy to commit money laundering, under one of two possible theories of liability. Nor did the dismissal of Feldman's jury before it had "return[ed] any express verdict" on the concealment theory,
The implied-acquittal reasoning that underlies the first holding of Green is subject to two conditions not satisfied in this appeal. First, the Court explained that it is "vital" that the two crimes be "distinct and different offense[s],"
Feldman's retrial did not violate the first holding of Green because the indictment did not charge Feldman with two distinct money-laundering-conspiracies. It instead charged him with a single conspiracy to commit money laundering either by concealment or by international transactions. No matter which underlying offense the jury found Feldman had conspired to commit-or if it found both-Feldman's conviction would be the same: one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Nor did the first jury's finding that Feldman conspired to transmit funds internationally to promote wire fraud logically exclude a finding that the same conspiracy embraced the additional purpose to conceal the proceeds of wire fraud. In this circumstance, we can hardly consider the first jury verdict to imply a partial acquittal.
The second and broader holding of Green -that the dismissal of the jury "without returning any express verdict" on the first-degree-felony-murder charge and without the defendant's consent terminated jeopardy,
To whatever extent the district court might be said to have "fail[ed] to try a discrete portion of [Feldman's] case before the original jury," Feldman impliedly consented to that failure. We have long recognized that a defendant's consent to a mistrial "need [not] be express" but "may *1257always be 'implied from the totality of circumstances.' " United States v. Puleo ,
B. Sufficient Evidence Supports Feldman's Convictions.
Feldman contends that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support his convictions, but we disagree. "[I]n reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence underlying a conviction, we consider the evidence 'in the light most favorable to the government, with all inferences and credibility choices drawn in the government's favor,' " and our review "inquires only whether a reasonable trier of fact could find that the evidence established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." United States v. Broughton ,
1. Sufficient Evidence Supports Feldman's Conviction for Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud.
To convict Feldman of conspiracy to commit wire fraud,
Feldman admits that the evidence established his agreement to lure customers to the nightclubs using the B-girls, who then used a variety of misleading or deceptive tactics to keep customers from realizing how much they were spending, but he insists that the tactics within the scope of his agreement were not fraudulent under Takhalov and that any fraud the B-girls committed was outside of the scope of his agreement. For example, Feldman admits that "B-girls sought to keep customers from pursuing price concerns," but he argues that "[t]here was no evidence ... that anyone lied to customers about prices" and the bartenders gave customers the drinks they ordered. Feldman also does not dispute that the B-girls committed fraud if they sometimes forged customers' signatures on credit-card receipts, but he points out that even Simchuk testified that such forgeries were not part of the scheme.
We need not review every alleged tactic of the B-girls to conclude that the evidence is sufficient to support Feldman's conviction of this charge. Based on Simchuk's testimony, the jury rationally could have found that Feldman knowingly participated in a scheme to charge customers for drinks they did not order, to lie to customers about the number and kind of drinks they were being charged for, and to lie to credit-card companies about the drinks patrons had ordered. Simchuk repeatedly testified that once a patron made the mistake of providing his credit card to a bartender, it would "be charged for bottles he didn't order," that "this happen[ed] at Stars Lounge," and that Feldman "was aware of this" and knew "exactly what[ ] [was] going on there." Simchuk described a particular ruse in which bartenders would tell patrons that they were receiving two bottles of champagne for the price of one but charge them for both after they accepted the "free" bottle, and although he was describing his clubs in Latvia when he testified about this trick, he testified immediately afterward that he brought "exactly the same system" to Miami. Simchuk also testified that the "bartender's job was [to] open up the tab and clean up the credit card." He used the phrase "clean up the credit card" more than once, and, when the government asked him what it meant, he replied, "That's what I mean, run the credit card until it stopped. ... Just charge it." A rational jury could have inferred from Simchuk's testimony that once a patron provided his credit card to a bartender, it was a foregone conclusion that the club would charge it to the credit limit or to as near the credit limit as possible, no matter how many drinks the patron actually ordered. In Simchuk's words, once a customer ordered even a single drink, "[b]artender went to bar, open up the tab, let the guy sign, that's it, credit card gone."
Simchuk testified about a scheme to commit what qualifies as fraud under any interpretation of the wire-fraud statute, and he testified that Feldman knowingly participated in that scheme. "The jury was entitled to credit his testimony." United States v. Anderson ,
2. Sufficient Evidence Supports Feldman's Conviction for Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering.
The jury found that Feldman conspired to commit money laundering in two ways: first, by knowingly "conduct[ing] ... financial transaction[s]" that "involve[d] the proceeds of specified unlawful activity," that is, wire fraud, and that were "designed ... to conceal or disguise the nature, the location, the source, the ownership, or the control of the proceeds,"
The government presented sufficient evidence to establish that Feldman conspired to conceal the ownership and control of funds that he knew to be the proceeds of wire fraud. Simchuk testified that Feldman created a limited-liability company, Ieva Marketing LLC, to facilitate paying the B-girls in cash so as to avoid paying taxes on their salaries and commissions. He explained that the purpose of the company, which Feldman understood, was "to avoid showing the IRS or anyone else looking that [Simchuk and Feldman] had B-girls working for [them]." Kim Marks, Feldman's accountant, testified that he filed articles of organization for Ieva Marketing at the request of either Feldman or his sister and bookkeeper, Alex Burrlader. The articles listed Ieva Marketing's address as the office of Feldman's realty company. Based on this evidence and its rational finding that Feldman knowingly joined a scheme to commit wire fraud, the jury rationally could have inferred that Feldman knowingly conspired to conduct financial transactions that involved the proceeds of wire fraud and that were designed to conceal the ownership and control of those proceeds.
The government also presented sufficient evidence to establish that Feldman conspired to promote wire fraud through international transactions. Simchuk testified that Stars Lounge received investment money from and distributed proceeds to investors in Europe, including Simchuk's mother, Eleonora, and his business partner, Andrejs Romanovs. Simchuk testified that these payments were integral to the functioning of the club because, without the distribution of profits, he and Romanovs would have withdrawn from the enterprise. When Stars Lounge first opened its bank account, the two signatories were Eleonora Simchuk and Burrlader. Simchuk testified that Burrlader's presence on the account was "a part of [the] deal" between him and Feldman because Feldman "want[ed] to make sure [that] he [could] control the bank." Based on this evidence and its rational finding that Feldman knowingly joined a scheme to commit wire fraud, the jury rationally could have inferred that Feldman conspired to transfer funds internationally to promote the wire fraud committed at Stars Lounge.
C. Feldman Can Establish No Reversible Constructive Amendment of the Indictment's Wire-Fraud-Conspiracy Count.
The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution provides that "[n]o person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury." U.S. Const. amend. V. This clause does not "permit a defendant to be tried on charges that are not made in the indictment *1260against him" or convicted on theories that the indictment "cannot fairly be read as charging." Stirone v. United States ,
Feldman argues that the wire-fraud-conspiracy count of the indictment was constructively amended in three ways: by the government's redaction of the indictment, by the district court's jury instructions, and by the government's arguments at trial. He contends that the grand jury indicted only on the fraud theory that we rejected in Takhalov -that the B-girls' concealment of their relationship with the clubs was an act of fraud-so his conviction on any other basis rests on a fraud theory not contemplated by the grand jury. These arguments fail.
First, Feldman contends that the wire-fraud-conspiracy count in the redacted indictment differs from the wire-fraud-conspiracy count in the original indictment "to the point that the prosecution theory diverged from that determined by the grand jury." But the two counts are identical-to the word-in every material respect, so the government's redaction of the indictment cannot have changed the nature of the charge.
Second, Feldman contends that the wire-fraud-conspiracy count was constructively amended by the district court's jury instruction that encouraging customers to drink to overintoxication could be fraud, but the doctrine of invited error bars Feldman from complaining of this instruction. After the district court read its proposed instruction and gave Feldman an opportunity to object, his counsel acquiesced in the instruction, stating, "that's fine." Under our precedent, "when a party agrees with a court's proposed instructions, the doctrine of invited error applies, meaning that review is waived even if plain error would result." United States v. Frank ,
Finally, Feldman argues that the government's arguments at trial impermissibly broadened the basis for conviction, but this argument fails because the indictment substantially charged every or nearly every potentially fraudulent tactic that the government proved at trial and about which Feldman complains on appeal. To the limited extent that minor discrepancies may exist between the allegations of the indictment and the corresponding parts of the government's evidence at trial-for instance, *1261one could cavil whether the indictment's allegation that B-girls forged customers' signatures contains the slightly distinct charge, of which evidence was presented at trial, that B-girls sometimes helped guide an intoxicated patron's hand when he was signing a receipt-such details would be grist for a variance argument, not a constructive-amendment argument. See 3 Charles Alan Wright et al., Federal Practice and Procedure § 516, at 45 (4th ed. 2011) ("The term variance applies when the difference between the indictment and proof is relatively slight, and the term constructive amendment applies when the difference is more significant."). And Feldman has not established that any such minor variances in the government's evidence caused him prejudice. See Salinas ,
D. Prosecutorial Allusions to Oliver Twist Did Not Deprive Feldman of Due Process .
Feldman, who is Jewish, contends that he was deprived of due process by several comments in which prosecutors drew an analogy between his conduct and that of Fagin, the street criminal in Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist , who is also Jewish. To be sure, a prosecutor's exploitation of racial or ethnic animus can deprive a defendant of a fair trial, see, e.g. , United States v. Sanchez ,
The government never referred to Fagin's or Feldman's ethnicity, and it is clear from the record that it neither intended to trade nor inadvertently traded on an ethnic stereotype in order to prejudice Feldman. The government first used Fagin as an example when it asked prospective jurors whether they understood that someone who masterminds a crime is guilty even if he employs someone else to commit the crime on his behalf. A few moments later, the government made another fleeting reference to Fagin to inquire whether a prospective juror would be unwilling to credit a witness's testimony just because the witness was himself a criminal. The government referred to Fagin only once more, when, in its rebuttal closing argument, it compared both Feldman and its own witness Simchuk-who, at least as far as the record reflects, is not Jewish-to the Dickensian villain. Feldman did not object to the government's remarks at trial, so we review their propriety only for plain error, see Gonzalez ,
E. Feldman Has Established No Reversible Sentencing Error.
Feldman contends that the district court committed both procedural and substantive sentencing errors. He challenges the eight-level loss-amount enhancement, the two-level ten-or-more-victims enhancement, the two-level obstruction-of-justice enhancement, and the two-level sophisticated-money-laundering enhancement. And he argues that his sentence is substantively unreasonable. We disagree and address these issues in turn.
1. The District Court Did Not Clearly Err when It Applied the Loss-Amount and Ten-or-More-Victims Enhancements.
Feldman challenges both his loss-amount and ten-or-more-victims enhancements.
*1262The Sentencing Guidelines provide an eight-level enhancement for a loss amount greater than $95,000 but not greater than $150,000. See U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(1)(E). For purposes of this enhancement, "loss is the greater of actual loss"-that is, "the reasonably foreseeable pecuniary harm that resulted from the offense"-and "intended loss"-that is, "the pecuniary harm that the defendant purposely sought to inflict."
The district court did not clearly err when it found that the loss amount was greater than $95,000 and that the number of victims was at least ten. After the second jury found Feldman guilty, the government prepared a list of 52 alleged victims and their alleged actual losses, which totaled $115,404.60. The government explained that the list identified individuals who "either disputed the charges as fraudulent with their credit card companies, were observed by law enforcement officers being defrauded at VIP or Stars Lounge, or confirmed with the U.S. Attorney's office or the FBI that they were defrauded." At the sentencing hearing, Feldman objected that the government had not established that all of the alleged losses resulted from "actionable fraud." But he conceded that if the district court "[went] with what the government's view is," the government's list reflected "the appropriate amount of money that would be indicated in" the evidence. Based on that concession, the district court needed to infer only that it was more likely than not that someone who disputed a charge as fraudulent or was identified as a fraud victim by law enforcement was indeed a fraud victim, and Feldman has not shown that the district court committed clear error in so inferring.
2. The District Court Did Not Clearly Err in Applying the Obstruction-of-Justice Enhancement Based on Its Finding that Feldman Committed Perjury at His First Trial.
The Guidelines prescribe a two-level enhancement for a "defendant [who] 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," U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1, which includes a defendant's attempt to escape conviction by perjury, see
*1263Feldman argues that the findings by the district court were too "generalized," but he overstates its procedural burden. In Dunnigan , the Supreme Court explained that "it is preferable for a district court to address each element of the alleged perjury in a separate and clear finding," but it "is sufficient" when "the court makes a finding ... that encompasses all of the factual predicates for a finding of perjury."
The record reflects that the district court found that Feldman's testimony was perjured because it believed that Simchuk's testimony, which contradicted Feldman's on several material points, was "truthful[ ]." To give one of many examples, Simchuk testified at the first trial that he explained to Feldman how Ieva Marketing would work as the cash funnel for the B-girls and that he should arrange to create the company once Koncilo had arrived in the United States. To make sure that Feldman understood the company's function, Simchuk testified that he made Feldman explain to Burrlader exactly how Ieva Marketing was supposed to work. By contrast, Feldman denied under oath that "Simchuk asked [him] to set up a separate company to see to it that the promoters [that is, the B-girls] got paid." Instead, he testified that he referred Koncilo to his accountant to set up a company only because she had asked him to do so.
When a government witness's testimony about material facts "directly contradict[s]" that of the defendant, the district court may credit the government witness's testimony and find that the defendant's was perjured. United States v. Dobbs ,
3. The District Court Did Not Err when It Applied the Sophisticated-Money-Laundering Enhancement.
The Guidelines prescribe a two-level enhancement for a money-laundering offense that "involved sophisticated laundering." U.S.S.G. § 2S1.1(b)(3). " '[S]ophisticated laundering' means complex or intricate offense conduct pertaining to the execution or concealment of the
The district court did not err when it applied this enhancement based on Feldman's use of Ieva Marketing as a cash funnel for the B-girls' salaries and commissions. Feldman contends that a single-member, publicly registered limited-liability *1264company providing only one layer of insulation for the clubs' transactions is too simple a means of laundering to qualify for the enhancement, but we have affirmed sophisticated-means enhancements for schemes that were no more complex. See United States v. Campbell ,
4. We Need Not Consider the Substantive Reasonableness of Feldman's Sentence.
Feldman argues that his above-guideline sentence is substantively unreasonable, but we disagree. The district court considered the statutory sentencing factors, see
The factual findings supporting the reasoning of the district court are not clearly erroneous. As we have already explained, the district court did not clearly err when it found that Feldman had perjured himself. Nor did it clearly err when it found that Feldman was not remorseful. True, at the first sentencing hearing, Feldman stated that he "t[ook] full responsibility" for his "bad judgment to get in this business," and his attorney stated at the second sentencing hearing that Feldman "fe[lt] ashamed of himself." But Feldman always insisted that he "never intended ... to cheat or to defraud anybody." The district court reasonably interpreted these equivocal expressions of shame to mean that Feldman refused to admit that "[he] kn[e]w [he] did something wrong." Feldman argues that he "did as much as he could to express remorse without effectively waiving his right to pursue substantial appellate claims," but this suggestion is unpersuasive. Feldman could have expressed that he felt bad about what happened to the nightclubs' customers-who, at a minimum, were lured to the nightclubs by deception and led to spend outrageous sums of money on alcohol the price of which they were discouraged from ascertaining until it was too late-even while arguing that what befell them did not satisfy the statutory definition of fraud, that he did not know about it, or both. He never did so. The district court did not clearly err in finding that Feldman failed to exhibit remorse.
Findings that a defendant lacks remorse and committed perjury to escape conviction are a valid basis for an upward variance. See United States v. Mateos ,
IV. CONCLUSION
We AFFIRM Feldman's convictions and sentence.
Concurring Opinion
Obviously, I join the panel opinion in full. I write separately to express some concerns about our puzzling opinion in United States v. Takhalov ,
The Supreme Court has made clear that the statutory phrase "scheme or artifice to defraud"-a staple of the federal criminal-fraud statutes, see, e.g. ,
Although common-law authorities state the elements of actionable fraud in slightly different ways, all agree on the following "fairly exact meaning":
[A] false representation of a material fact made by one who knew that it was false or in some cases ... when he knew that he had not information sufficient to warrant his belief in the truth of such statement, made to one who did not know that it was false, with intent to deceive such person and to influence his action, which did deceive such person and influence his action to his damage.
1 William Herbert Page, The Law of Contracts § 217, at 320-21 (2d ed. 1920) [hereinafter Page on Contracts ]; see also W. Page Keeton et al., Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts § 105, at 728 (5th ed. 1984) [hereinafter Prosser and Keeton on Torts ]; Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 162 (1981) ; Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 525 - 26 (1977) ; 2 James Fitzjames Stephen, A History of the Criminal Law of England 121-22 (1883); 1 Joseph Story, Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence § 192, at 201 (1836). This set of elements defines fraud both when it is used as a sword, as in the tort claim of deceit, see Restatement (Second) of Torts § 525, and when it is used as a shield, for instance, to avoid a contract, see Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 164. See 37 Am. Jur. 2d Fraud and Deceit § 368, at 408 (2013) ("The essentials of actionable fraud are generally the same for setting it up as a defense as for asserting it as the basis of an action for damages." (footnotes omitted)); 1 Page on Contracts § 217, at 321 (explaining that " 'fraud' ... has substantially the same elements" in contract as in tort).
Consistent with this common-law definition, the words "to defraud" in the federal fraud statutes "signify the deprivation of something of value by trick, deceit, chicane or overreaching"; in other words, "[t]hey refer ... to wronging one in his property rights by dishonest methods or schemes." Hammerschmidt v. United States ,
Takhalov is difficult to square with this common-law backdrop. To be sure, the bottom-line holdings of Takhalov are straightforward enough. We held that the district court reversibly erred when it declined the defendants' request for the following jury instruction: "Failure to disclose the financial arrangement between the B-girls and the Bar, in and of itself, is not sufficient to convict a defendant of any offense."
Although the holdings of Takhalov may be easy to understand, its reasoning is less so. Before examining the opinion, consider the jury instruction itself. On its face, the proposition that "[f]ailure to disclose the financial arrangement between the B-girls and the Bar, in and of itself, is not sufficient to convict a defendant of any offense" is obviously correct. After all, a mere "failure to disclose" information is typically insufficient to satisfy even the misrepresentation element of fraud. For nondisclosure to be equivalent to a misrepresentation, it must be coupled with special circumstances, such as a confidential relationship between the parties or a course of affirmative representations making the omission misleading, that justify the imposition of a duty to disclose. See Prosser and Keeton on Torts § 106, at 737-40; 37 Am. Jur. 2d Fraud and Deceit § 194, at 235-37. And even when it is tantamount to a misrepresentation, a failure to disclose is never "in and of itself" sufficient to prove a scheme to defraud; the misrepresentation must also be material, made with scienter, and intended to induce detrimental reliance.
But our opinion in Takhalov reads as if we equated the requested jury instruction with one about the insufficiency of affirmative misrepresentations concededly made with the intent to influence customers, and it appears to equivocate about what precisely we thought the defendants had intended. At first glance, many passages in the opinion suggest that we understood the instruction to mean that the defendants would not have schemed to defraud if the only way they intended the concealment of the B-girls' employment status to affect customers was by influencing them merely to set foot in the nightclubs. See, e.g. ,
Despite the many passages that support this narrow reading of the instruction, other passages suggest that we took it to mean something more: that the defendants would not have schemed to defraud even if they intended the concealment of the B-girls' employment status to affect customers both by inducing them to set foot in the clubs and by inducing them to buy drinks once they were there. See Takhalov ,
In Part II.A.1 of our opinion, we discussed the meaning of the phrase "scheme or artifice to defraud." See
Thus, a "scheme to defraud," as that phrase is used in the wire-fraud statute, refers only to those schemes in which a defendant lies about the nature of the bargain itself. That lie can take two primary forms: the defendant might lie about the price (e.g. , if he promises that a good costs $10 when it in fact costs $20) or he might lie about the characteristics of the good (e.g. , if he promises that a gemstone is a diamond when it is in fact a cubic zirconium). In each case, the defendant has lied about the nature of the bargain and thus in both cases the defendant has committed wire fraud. But if a defendant lies about something else-e.g. , if he says that he is the long-lost cousin of a prospective buyer-then he has not lied about the nature of the bargain, has not "schemed to defraud," and cannot be convicted of wire fraud on the basis of that lie alone.
*1269Our analysis is difficult to ground in the common law of fraud. To begin with, our failure to discuss the common law makes it hard to be sure precisely which traditional fraud elements, if any, we thought we were interpreting. Even so, making sense of Takhalov requires that we at least attempt to relate its conclusions in Part II.A.1 to some aspect of the traditional legal definition of fraud. The proposition that the phrase "scheme or artifice to defraud" contains some limitation with absolutely no roots in the common-law definition of actionable fraud is a nonstarter. After all, we must presume that "Congress intend[ed] to incorporate the well-settled meaning of the common-law terms it use[d]" " 'unless the statute otherwise dictates.' " Neder ,
The trouble is that none of the traditional fraud elements is a natural fit with our discussion in Part II.A.1. The most basic two elements, misrepresentation and scienter, are prima facie implausible candidates to be the subject of our analysis. To be sure, as I have discussed, the jury instruction that the defendants requested easily could be read to highlight the important difference between mere nondisclosure and potentially actionable misrepresentation. But in Part II.A.1, our analysis of the phrase "scheme or artifice to defraud" assumed the existence of "a scheme to deceive ,"
It also seems unlikely that we were discussing the requirement that the defendant intend to influence the victim into relinquishing some property right. True, as I have explained, much of our opinion suggests that the defendants may have intended the customers to rely on the B-girls' concealment of their employment status only in deciding to visit the clubs and not necessarily in deciding to order drinks once they were there. But our analysis in Part II.A.1 undermines this suggestion. Our statement about "a schemer who tricks someone to enter into a transaction"-who, we reasoned, "has not 'schemed to defraud' so long as he does not intend to harm the person he intends to trick"-is most naturally read to refer to a schemer who intends to bring about a transaction by means of deceit.
So the two most plausible ways of translating our conclusion that a "scheme or artifice to defraud" requires a misrepresentation "about the nature of the bargain itself" into common-law terms concern the elements of injury and materiality. On the injury-based reading, the thesis of Part II.A.1 is that the harm of having been tricked into a transaction, while still understanding its essential terms, is not an injury that would make fraud actionable at common law; that is, a fraudulent inducement does not "wrong[ ] [the victim] in his property rights," Hammerschmidt ,
Although each of these interpretations of Part II.A.1 has some plausibility, they are plausible for different reasons, and the strength of each is the other's weakness. The injury-based reading is plausible to the extent that it seems to match our reasoning . After all, we began with the premise that "to defraud , one must intend to use deception to cause some injury" or, put another way, "intend to harm the person [one] intends to trick." Takhalov ,
Whichever reading one prefers, the overriding problem is that both the injury-based reading and the materiality-based reading are incompatible with the common law and with binding precedent. So-called "fraud in the inducement"-that is, fraud about a collateral but still material matter that persuades a victim to enter a transaction he would otherwise have avoided-has long been considered a species of actionable fraud. Nor is materiality limited to the "nature of the bargain" representations we discussed in Takhalov . I address these problems in turn.
The common law has traditionally distinguished between two kinds of fraud: "fraud in the factum" and "fraud in the inducement." See, e.g. , Lovato v. Catron ,
*1271Langley v. Fed. Deposit Ins. Corp. ,
Fraud in the inducement fits squarely within the "well-settled meaning" of "actionable 'fraud.' " Neder ,
So, if our analysis in Takhalov means that the federal fraud statutes punish only fraud-in-the-factum schemes, not schemes to commit fraud in the inducement, it is at odds with the common law. That fraud in the inducement has traditionally been actionable reflects the law's judgment that a person is "entitled to determine on what basis, for what reason, and under what circumstances [he] want[s] to give away" his property. Gregory v. United States ,
Unsurprisingly, this reading of Takhalov is also at odds with our precedent. To be sure, we have never expressly held that the phrase "scheme and artifice to defraud" covers fraud in the inducement as well as fraud in the factum-the argument that it covers only the latter has never been made or at least not in those terms-but our precedents reflect a clear understanding that it covers both. Take, for instance, United States v. Dynalectric Co. ,
Part II.A.1 of Takhalov fares no better if interpreted as a commentary on materiality. It is hornbook law that the test of materiality "cannot be stated in the form of any definite rule, but must depend upon the circumstances of the transaction itself." Prosser and Keeton on Torts § 108, at 753. In the circumstances of a particular transaction, a misrepresentation is material either if a reasonable person would consider it important to his choice of action or if its maker knows that its recipient would likely do so. See Neder ,
Nothing about the common-law test limits materiality to misrepresentations about "the price," "the characteristics of the good," or even "the nature of the bargain itself." Takhalov ,
The common-law courts that decided Brown , Sorrells , and many similar cases, see Prosser and Keeton on Torts § 108, at 753-54 & nn.45-60, also would not have held that a seller's pretense "that he is the long-lost cousin of a prospective buyer" cannot be material as a matter of law, Takhalov ,
So, on examination, the two most plausible ways of translating the analysis of Part II.A.1 into the language of the common law turn out to be doctrinal dead ends. Where does this leave us in our attempt to make sense of Takhalov ? The connection between the jury instruction requested by the defendants, on the one hand, and the reasoning that occupies much of our opinion, on the other, is less than transparent. And the connection between that reasoning and the preexisting jurisprudence of fraud is even more obscure. To my mind, all that is clear is that the Takhalov panel held that the district court should have given the jury instruction and that its failure to do so was reversible error. The rationale for that decision remains an enigma.
In the light of these concerns, I encourage the bench and bar to evaluate carefully the precedential value of Takhalov in future prosecutions under the fraud statutes and, in doing so, to keep three principles in mind. First, the binding force of a precedent is limited to its holding, and "regardless of what a court says in its opinion, the decision can hold nothing beyond the facts of that case." Edwards v. Prime, Inc. ,
Notwithstanding my concerns about the reasoning of Takhalov , I do not mean to imply doubt about the correctness of its result. Perhaps the B-girls' representations about their employment status were immaterial to the customers' drink orders for some more precise reason than that they were not "about the price" or "the characteristics of the [drinks]." Takhalov ,
In any event, we need not crack the riddle of Takhalov to resolve this appeal, and I express no ultimate opinion about its solution. But our analysis could have been much clearer had we only anchored it in the common-law meaning of the term Congress *1274used when it enacted the federal criminal-fraud statutes.
Reference
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