United States v. Fernando Jacobs

MEMORANDUM

Fernando Jacobs was a Supervisory Immigration Services Officer (“supervisory officer”) with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“CIS”). Jacobs was convicted of four counts of honest services wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1343 , 1346, based on his involvement in a scheme taking bribes in exchange for immigration information and assistance. Jacobs raises two issues on appeal, the insufficiency of the evidence on the required element of materiality to support the wire fraud charges and the application of a sentencing enhancement. We affirm.

Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, we conclude that a rational trier of fact could have found the element of materiality proven beyond a reasonable doubt. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 , 99 S.Ct. 2781 , 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). There was sufficient evidence that Jacobs’s scheme to defraud CIS of his honest services had a natural tendency to influence CIS or was capable of influencing CIS. See United States v. Milovanovic, 678 F.3d 718, 727 (9th Cir.2012) (en banc); see also United States v. Peterson, 538 F.3d 1064, 1072 (9th Cir.2008) (citing Kungys v. United States, 485…