United States v. Henrik Sardariani

MEMORANDUM

Defendant Henrik Sardariani appeals his sentence of 120 months and $100,000 fine imposed for a guilty plea conviction for conspiring to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and transactional money laundering ( 18 U.S.C. § 371 ); wire fraud ( 18 U.S.C. § 1343 ); and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions ( 18 U.S.C. § 1957 ). We affirm the custodial portion of the sentence but vacate the fine.

Defendant argues that the court improperly applied a four-level adjustment for his role in organizing criminal activity involving five or more participants. See U.S.S.G. § 3Bl.l(a). Specifically, he argues that the evidence presented prior to sentencing was insufficient to support the court’s findings regarding the fifth participant, and the FBI report proffered as evidence at sentencing was inadmissible because it was not sufficiently reliable and consisted of hearsay. See United States v. Alvarado-Martinez, 556 F.3d 732, 735 (9th Cir.2009) (quoting U.S.S.G. § 6A1.3(a)) (at sentencing, “a district court may consider any relevant information, ‘provided that the information has sufficient indicia of reliability to support its probable accuracy.’ ”); Fed.R.Evid.…