United States v. Henderson

MEMORANDUM *

1. IRS agents violated Fed.R.Crim.P. 41(d) when they failed to give the Hendersons a copy of the search warrant upon their return home while the search was still in progress. United States v. Gantt, 194 F.3d 987, 994 (9th Cir.1999). Nevertheless, the violation was harmless because none of the evidence seized after the Rule 41(d) violation — computer files in the Hendersons’ computers — was introduced or otherwise used at trial. See Fed. *616 R.Crim.P. 52(a); Neder v. United States, 527 U.S. 1, 7-8, 15-16 , 119 S.Ct. 1827 , 144 L.Ed.2d 35 (1999).

2. In determining the Hendersons’ sentences, the district court found that their fraudulent tax scheme cost the government at least $10 million in tax losses. This figure was “a reasonable estimate based on the available facts.” USSG § 2T1.1 cmt. n. 1. The government made reasonable efforts to verify that the losses stemmed from activities related to the Hendersons’ activities rather than from unrelated sources. It also offered extensive testimony before the district court to this effect. While the government’s methodology might have overestimated the amount of tax losses in certain situations, it also produced known…