United States v. Patrick Thomas

MEMORANDUM

Patrick Charles Thomas appeals from the district court’s judgment awarding restitution to the government in the amount of $162,865.36, following Thomas’s guilty-plea conviction for conversion of secured property, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 658 . We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

Thomas contends that the district court erred by awarding restitution based on the value of properties converted by him because the government subsequently forgave payment on the loans for which the properties served as collateral, pursuant to a settlement reached in Keepseagle v. Vil-sak. We need not reach this issue because Thomas has admitted that he did not meet the requirements under the Keepseagle settlement. The government has recently obtained a civil judgment against Thomas, based on the court’s finding that Thomas made a fraudulent Keepseagle claim. See United States v. Thomas, No. 4:13-cv-00094-BMM (D.Mont.2014).

We have reviewed Thomas’s pro se supplemental brief and decline to consider Thomas’s claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel because the record is insufficiently developed to evaluate that claim on direct appeal, and Thomas’s legal…