US v. Lawrence: Lawrence had a business that processed business payroll and distributed it to employees in the form of “a debit-like card” that could be either spent or cashed out. Unfortunately, Lawrence siphoned off funds for his personal use in options trading, which didn’t work out. After his company went out of business, he sought a PPP loan based on assertions that he still had payroll responsibilities to meet. For all this, Lawrence was charged with ten counts of wire and mail fraud for the payroll card scheme, plus one count of wire fraud for the PPP loan. He was tried, and convicted, on all counts together and sentenced to 87 months in prison.
On appeal, the Fourth Circuit affirmed his convictions. Primarily, the court addressed Lawrence’s argument that the district court should have severed his PPP loan count from the other fraud counts. The court disagreed, holding that while “the schemes themselves were distinct . . . they overlapped in material ways,” including proof and witnesses, and “the paycard fraud precipitated his PPP fraud.” Properly joined initially, there was no abuse of discretion in the district court’s failing to sever them prior to trial.
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