United States v. Henrik Sardariani

Defendant Henrik Sardariani appeals his sentence of 120 months imposed as a result of a guilty plea conviction for conspiring to commit wire fraud and other offenses. We affirm. In doing so, we hold that a notary seal can be an “authentication feature” under 18 U.S.C. § 1028 , and that the district court, in calculating the advisory guidelines range in this case, correctly applied an enhancement for use of an authentication feature under Sentencing Guidelines § 2Bl.l(b)(ll)(A)(ii) (formerly § 2Bl.l(b)(10)(B)(ii)).

I. Background

Beginning in 2007, Sardariani, along with several co-conspirators, developed and executed a scheme to procure multiple loans from various private lenders by falsely pledging as collateral properties he did not own. The properties included: (1) a house in Burbank, California, previously owned by Sardariani but subsequently sold in a foreclosure sale; (2) a house in Glen dale, California, previously owned by Sar-dariani but subsequently transferred to a sham entity under his control; and (3) a house in Sherman Oaks, California, which Sardariani induced another to purchase and then fraudulently transferred to the sham entity. Sardariani and his…