Carter

MEMORANDUM ***

Appellant Greg Carter was convicted by a jury of numerous counts of wire fraud, money laundering, access device fraud, and conspiracy arising out of his participation in a complex airline ticketing scheme. The district court imposed a 70-month sentence. Carter appeals both his conviction and sentence. We affirm.

There is no merit to Carter’s sufficiency of the evidence claim. A rational factfinder could have found that Carter specifically intended to defraud beyond a reasonable doubt, especially given the testimony of numerous witnesses as to Carter’s direct participation in the ticketing scheme and the testimony of his co-defendant as to Carter’s knowledge of the consequences of his conduct. See United States v. Durham, 464 F.3d 976, 981 (9th Cir.2006).

Carter’s jury instruction claims are unavailing. There was abundant evidence to support a Jewell deliberate ignorance instruction and the charge in this case was virtually identical to that recently upheld by this Court. See United States v. Heredia, 483 F.3d 913, 917 (9th Cir.2007) (en banc). No good faith defense instruction was warranted here because the district court sufficiently instructed the jury as to…