United States v. William Bernard Hardy

ORDER

The mandate issued February 26, 2002 is hereby recalled for the purpose of amending the opinion. The opinion filed February 4, 2002 is hereby amended as follows:

At slip opinion page 1768, ¶ 1, at the end of the sentence reading “Had the court valued loss ... and a lower sentencing range,” add a new footnote 3:

Renumber the original footnote 8 accordingly.

Upon amendment of the opinion, the Clerk is directed to reissue the mandate forthwith.

OPINION

William Bernard Hardy (“Hardy”) challenges his conviction and sentence for knowing possession of property stolen from interstate commerce and conspiracy to possess such property. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742 . We affirm Hardy’s conviction, vacate his sentence and remand for resentencing.

I

Hardy and a partner contacted a broker in an attempt to sell several thousand digital video disks (“DVDs”) of two films, one of which was not yet available to the public. Upon learning that the DVDs were stolen goods, the broker agreed to cooperate with authorities and introduced Hardy to an undercover agent masquerading as a potential buyer. After Hardy and the agent worked out terms for a…