United States v. Kent Aoki Lee, AKA Kent Aoki AKA Keun Do Kent Lee

This case involves application of the special skills sentencing adjustment to the use of a computer.

FACTS

The Honolulu Marathon Association has a web site at “www.honolulu-mara-thon.org.” During the relevant time, U.S. residents could use the site to register for the Honolulu Marathon and pay the registration fee online. Although many Japanese enter the race, the site did not permit online registration from Japan, but told Japanese entrants to register through an office in Japan.

The appellant, Kent Aokr Lee, lived in Honolulu, where he owned a video rental store. Lee came up with a scheme to sell marathon services to the marathon’s Japanese market. Lee owned a computer server, which he kept on the premises of an internet service provider with whom he had a dial-up internet account. He registered the domain name “www.honolulu-marathon.com” and created a site almost identical to the official Honolulu Marathon site by copying its files onto his server. While the official site did not permit online registration from Japan, Lee’s site contained an online registration form written in Japanese on which runners could enter personal information and credit card information. While the…