United States v. Rex K. Degeorge, AKA Rex Karageorge Degeorge, Rex Karageorgiou Degeorge, Angelos George Karageorgiou, Angelos George Karageorge

Rex K. DeGeorge appeals his conviction and sentence following a month-long jury trial for conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and perjury. The government alleged that DeGeorge participated in a scheme to defraud by purchasing a yacht, inflating its value through a series of sham transactions, obtaining insurance on the yacht at the inflated value, scuttling it off the coast of Italy, and attempting to collect the insurance proceeds, in part by lying about the cause of the sinking during civil litiga tion with the yacht’s insurer. We affirm the convictions but reverse and remand for resentencing.

FACTS

DeGeorge,. an attorney, contracted with an Italian firm in June 1992 for the construction of a 76-foot yacht, later named the Principe di Pictor, for $1.9 million. In late July of that year, DeGeorge assigned his rights in the construction contract to Continental Pictures Corp., which in turn sold its interest in the yacht to Polaris Pictures Corp. for $3.6 million in October. DeGeorge himself continued throughout this time to make payments to the Italian builder.

Polaris had been formed by DeGeorge, and its President at the time of the yacht’s purchase was Paul Ebeling, who was…