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Fraud Guidelines and the Risk of Death or Bodily Injury

By Bill Theis

United States v. Adam Babul, No. 05-4538 (february 9, 2007): Mr. Babul aided applicants for truck driving licenses. In order to take advantage of the easier licensing procedures in Wisconsin, he helped his applicants create false claims of residency in Wisconsin. In doing so, he submitted false statements to banks in Wisconsin. The banks lost no money, but the district court turned to the provision in the fraud guideline that sets the offense level at a minimum of 14 if the offense involved "the conscious or reckless risk of death or serious bodily injury."In upholding this application of the guidelines, the Court ignored the most basic question: should there be some proximate cause type of limitation? One might be able to trace a chain of factual causation between telling a lie to a bank, which results in evidence of Wisconsin residency, which results in obtaining a driver?s license that could not be otherwise obtained, which results in a driver?s being on the road, which results in the driver?s being in a collision, and which injures someone...continue to full post

Full post as published by Seventh Circuit Blog on February 12, 2007 (boomark / email).