United States v. Lester Kasprowicz

MEMORANDUM

Lester Kasprowicz appeals his convictions on seven counts of mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341 . We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 ; we affirm and remand for additional findings.

The individual counts alleged in the indictment were properly premised on individual mailings in furtherance of a single scheme to defraud. United States v. Vaughn, 797 F.2d 1485, 1493 (9th Cir.1986).

Kasprowicz argues that the hallmark of a scheme to defraud is obtaining money without provision of return services and that, because he provided brokerage services, he could not have been involved in a scheme to defraud. The defining characteristic of a scheme to defraud is actually deceit. United States v. Milovanovic, 627 F.3d 405, 410 (9th Cir.2010) (“Fraud generally means deception, the use of misrepresentation to obtain something of value or deprive another of something of value.”). A rational trier of fact could find that Kasprowicz obtained money through deceit based on the evidence presented at trial.

A reasonable jury could also conclude that Kasprowicz intended to defraud his customers based on his use of aliases and multiple business names — some of which…