Sanchez

BACKGROUND

Gabriel Bernardo Sanchez (“Sanchez”) was convicted of thirty-three counts of mail fraud and eleven counts of money laundering, in connection with an extensive charitable dona- 7590 UNITED STATES v. SANCHEZ tion scam. Sanchez and his partner formed a “shell” church, and then employed telemarketers to solicit donations on behalf of the church’s purported charities. Of the millions of dollars raised through this scam, less than $5,000 actually was used for charitable purposes.

Sanchez was sentenced under the mandatory Sentencing Guidelines, before the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (2005). Sanchez appealed both his conviction and his sentence; we rejected those challenges, but granted Sanchez a limited remand under United States v. Ameline, 409 F.3d 1073, 1085 (9th Cir. 2005) (en banc). See U.S. v. Lyons, 472 F.3d 1055 (9th Cir. 2007).

On remand, both parties submitted briefing as to whether resentencing was required. The district court requested addi- tional briefing as to whether it could consider Sanchez’s post- sentence rehabilitation efforts on a limited Ameline remand. Sanchez appeared and addressed the court on his…