US v. Abbas
Split Score
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Case Summary
Disposition
Affirmed
The First Circuit upheld Hassan Abbas’s 87-month below-guidelines sentence and $2 million restitution order arising from a romance-scam/wire-fraud and money-laundering scheme. The court rejected challenges to the calculation of the base-offense level, money-laundering enhancements, loss amount, zero-point-offender reduction, substantive reasonableness, and restitution—affirming across the board.
Circuit Split Identified
Legal Issue
Whether Application Note 3(C) to USSG § 2S1.1 limits the two-level money-laundering enhancement in § 2S1.1(b)(2)(B) when the defendant is convicted under 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h) and the sole object is an offense under 18 U.S.C. § 1957, even when the base-offense level is determined under § 2S1.1(a)(1).
Circuit Positions
Application Note 3(C) applies only when the base-offense level is set under § 2S1.1(a)(2); enhancement under § 2S1.1(b)(2)(B) still applies when base level is set under § 2S1.1(a)(1).
Application Note 3(C) has general application; it bars the § 2S1.1(b)(2)(B) enhancement whenever the sole object of a § 1956(h) conspiracy is a § 1957 offense, even if the base level is set under § 2S1.1(a)(1).
Conflict Summary
The Seventh Circuit (Tedder) reads Application Note 3(C) broadly, barring the § 2S1.1(b)(2)(B) enhancement whenever the § 1956(h) conspiracy’s sole object is § 1957, regardless of whether the base level comes from § 2S1.1(a)(1) or (a)(2). The First Circuit here (joining no-enhancement circuits) holds that Note 3(C) applies only when the base level is set under § 2S1.1(a)(2); because Abbas’s base level was set under § 2S1.1(a)(1), the enhancement properly applied.