United States v. Joshua Hester

MEMORANDUM

Joshua John Hester (Hester) appeals from the district court’s restitution order entered in favor of JP Morgan Chase Bank (Chase) and CitiGroup/CitiMortgage (Citi). The underlying drug trafficking scheme involved two properties relevant to this appeal — the Rancho Santa Fe property and the Palomar property. See United States v. Luis, No. 13-50020, 765 F.3d 1061, 1063-64 , 2014 WL 4236390, at *1 (9th Cir. Aug. 28, 2014).

The district court correctly determined that the Mandatory Victim Restitution Act (MVRA) required Hester and his co-defendant Marco Luis (Luis) to pay restitution for offenses against property. See id. Chase and Citi each qualified as a “victim” entitled to restitution under the MVRA. Id. However, in calculating restitution as to the Rancho Santa Fe property, and without the benefit of our recent Luis decision, “the district court erred by calculating restitution based on the unpaid principal loan balance rather than the value of the loans when Chase purchased them....” Id. at 1067 , 2014 WL 4236390, at *4 . On remand, the district court should use the formula for a loan purchaser rather than for a loan originator. See id. at 1066-68 , 2014 WL 4236390 ,…