United States v. Mary Ann Grice

Appellant, Mary Ann Grice, appeals the restitution portion of her sentence imposed following her guilty plea to four counts of mail fraud, 18 U.S.C. § 1341 , and four counts of forgery, 18 U.S.C. § 513 , arising from a scheme to defraud her son and Cook Inlet Region Incorporated. The district court ordered Grice to pay $15,882.38 of restitution for dividend checks issued to her son after his eighteenth birthday which she received in the mail, forged and cashed. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

From 1974 to 1996, Grice cashed ninety dividend checks issued to her son, William, by Cook Inlet Region Incorporated (CIRI). The district court found that Grice, as legal guardian of her son, was legally entitled to cash checks issued to William before his eighteenth birthday in October 1988. Prior to William’s eighteenth birthday, Grice submitted to CIRI eleven change of address forms on her son’s behalf, listing her own address although William was living with his father in another state.

When William turned eighteen, CIRI sent him a letter, at Grice’s address, informing him of his adult status in the corporation and issuing new stock certificates in his name alone. Grice continued to…