Wire Fraud – Sufficiency of Evidence; Sentencing

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(1) Where a defendant, who was convicted of charges including conspiring to defraud lenders and bank and wire fraud as the result of a conspiracy in which a buyers and a sellers group agreed to deceive lenders to get financing for real estate transactions, the wiring of funds and a title company’s mailing of loan documentation carried out the essential purposes of the mortgage fraud, and the evidence of the use of mail and wire was sufficient, and the defendant did not show that he recanted false statements to a postal inspector.

(2) Where a defendant in a real estate conspiracy argued that actual loss to the lenders was caused by the housing market rather than by his misconduct, the evidence showed that the defendant knowingly participated in a scheme that made unqualified borrowers appear more creditworthy and exposed lenders to loss, and the District Court did not err in holding him joint and severally liable for the actual losses the lenders incurred as a consequence of the conspiracy, and the court also properly applied an enhancement for the obstruction of justice based partly on materially false statements made by the defendant to a postal inspector. Judgment is affirmed.

10-1027 U.S. v. McKanry, appealed from the Eastern District of Missouri, Riley, J.