USA v. SINE
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today released an opinion in USA v. SINE, No. 05-10575, a criminal appeal. The panel consisted of Betty B. Fletcher and Marsha S. Berzon, Circuit Judges, and David G. Trager, District Judge.
BERZON, Circuit Judge:
Defendant Wesley Sine, a Utah lawyer, helped run a pyramid scheme that defrauded victims of more than two million dollars. Sine’s role in the scheme was to reassure individuals that they were lending money to a legitimate real estate investor and that millions of dollars in legitimate collateral protected them in case of default. Once the scheme started to unravel and it became clear that the collateral was worthless, Sine began to weave a “good faith” defense to his actions, claiming that it was as much of a surprise to him as to anybody else that the collateral was illusory. To give credence to this story, Sine filed a number of lawsuits that purported to be seeking recovery of the value of the collateral. Ultimately, however, these lawsuits just added to Sine’s troubles: An Ohio federal district court rejected his factual claims, enjoined his recovery efforts, held him in contempt, and denounced on the record his “chicanery, mendacity, deceit, and pretense.” . . .