District court errs in application of gross receipts sentence enhancement provisions of sentencing guidelines

SENTENCING United States v. Weidner, No. 04-3084, ___ F.3d ___ (10th Cir. Feb. 16, 2006)(Kansas). Appeal of convictions and sentence for conspiracy, making false entries to federally insured bank, and money laundering in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 1005, and 1957. HELD: District court erred in applying gross receipts sentence-enhancement provisions of sentencing guidelines. U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(12) requires that defendant shall be considered to have derived more than $1,000,000 in gross receipts if the gross receipts to the defendant individually, rather than to all participants, exceeded $1,000,000. Thus, where district court attributed $1.5 million obtained by defendant from bank through false entries on loan documents and attributed that same amount to co-conspirator to whom defendant loaned those funds, district court erroneously attributed gross receipts to defendant individually when the $1.5 million was actually shared by participants. Read the opinion here.