Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Tenth Circuit Blog

Criminal Law

: Tenth Circuit Blog

By Shari Allison

United States v. Griffith, ___ F.3d ___ , 2009 WL 3429767 (10th Cir 2009) Defendant pleaded guilty to theft of government money arising out of her embezzlement of VA benefits as representative payee/fiduciary of the veteran. The Tenth held that the district court correctly calculated loss under the guidelines. The relevant conduct considered by the court must be related to the crime of conviction, and must be conduct that would constitute a state or federal offense. Accounting included direct losses and questionable expenditures from which defendant seemed to benefit more than the vet (they lived together and were married for a brief time). See case for how court determined, over D?s challenge, that these losses were proven by a preponderance (a reasonable estimate of loss is OK), and how they arose out of criminal conduct (her repeated acts of fraud were all part of a scheme) (it did not help that she was 35 years younger than the vet when they married)...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tenth Circuit Blog on October 28, 2009 (boomark / email).