Federal Judiciary

United States v. Ivezaj, Docket No. 06-3112-cr-(L), et al., (2d Cir. June 11, 2009) (found here)

Ivezaj challenged his sentence on the ground that any aggravating role enhancement the district court applied should have been based on his conduct as alleged in the underlying predicate acts, rather than his role in the RICO enterprise as a whole.  The Second Circuit disagreed.

Specifically, it found that "a defendant's role adjustment is to be made on the basis of the defendant's role in the overall RICO enterprise."  More specifically, first, it found that analyzing a defendant's role in the overall RICO conspiracy "makes a good deal more sense than considering his role in each underlying predicate."  Second, it found that "the language of the Guidelines is clear that the requirement to look at each individual act in a RICO offense is only for purposes of establishing the base level offense, not for applying the Chapter Three adjustments."