United States v. Lance Van Alstyne

MEMORANDUM

Lance Van Alstyne was convicted in 2001 of seven counts of mail fraud and three counts of money laundering in connection with a fraudulent investment scheme. This is his third appeal arising from that conviction. For the reasons stated below, we affirm the district court’s judgment and sentence.

Van Alstyne’s present appeal seeks reversal and remand on two grounds: First, he contends the district court abused its discretion when, on remand for resentenc-ing, it declined to take up Van Alstyne’s challenge to the one money laundering conviction that we did not reverse when the case was last before us. Relying on language from our 2009 opinion, United States v. Van Alstyne (Van Alstyne II), 584 F.3d 803 (9th Cir.2009), Van Alstyne maintains that the district court should have vacated his conviction on count 22 because the refund transaction on which that count was based “undermined rather than advanced” the mail fraud investment scheme. See id. at 815-16 . Second, he argues that the district court erred in imposing a four-level “aggravating role” sentence enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1, because the evidence is insufficient to show that he supervised a “criminally…