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Before
Howard, Chief Judge,
Selya and Thompson, Circuit Judges.
March 2, 2016
SELYA,
Circuit
Judge.
Defendant-appellant
John
C.
This
First,
Second, he
2011,
the
Federal
Bureau
of
Investigation
(FBI)
In
(disguised
as
consulting
fee)
equal
to
50%
of
the
amount
invested.
The defendant, then the president and chief executive
officer of Vida Life International Ltd. (Vida Life), bought into
the FBI's sting.
August of 2011, the defendant agreed that his company would sell
400,000 restricted shares2 for an aggregate price of $32,000 to
the fictitious hedge fund.
due
course,
federal
grand
jury
indicted
the
the
defendant's
initial
appeal,
we
affirmed
his
See id. at
remand,
parties
offered
conflicting
expert
testimony anent the value of the Vida Life shares in the form of
competing affidavits.3
Thomas
Carocci,
senior
counsel
for
the
Financial
Industry
The
micro-cap stocks, Watts concluded that "a per share price equal to
half the amount invested . . . represents a price an investor
. . . would pay."
were worth $16,000 and the amount of the loss was also $16,000
a figure representing the amount paid for the stock less the
kickback.
The court below credited the government's expert, fixed
the loss amount at $32,000, and again sentenced the defendant to
serve 30 months in prison.
In
this
venue,
defendant
first
challenges
the
Bottling Co., 161 F.3d 77, 83 (1st Cir. 1998) (quoting Anderson v.
Cryovac, Inc., 862 F.2d 910, 923 (1st Cir. 1988)).
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We conclude, without
within
the
encincture
of
the
district
court's
discretion.
To
begin,
Carocci's
educational
and
professional
In his current
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On its
face, Carocci's curriculum vitae belies the defendant's selfserving assertion that Carocci lacked the relevant knowledge,
experience,
or
education
to
proffer
an
expert
valuation.
determination
that
Carocci
was
qualified
to
offer
Vida
Life's
stock.
In
his
view,
Carocci
relied
on
Carocci charted the share price and volume of Vida Life stock
trades between September 2011 and January 2014 (the approximate
interval between the FBI's stock purchase and the last day of
trading for Vida Life shares) and explained that share price and
trading volume data supplied reliable evidence of how the market
would
have
government.
valued
the
400,000
Vida
Life
shares
held
by
the
See Breidor v.
Sears, Roebuck & Co., 722 F.2d 1134, 1138-39 (3d Cir. 1983).
From
See id.
He contends that
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USSG 2B1.1,
sale
formed
the
predicate
for
the
defendant's
We
review
district
court's
factual
findings
at
sentencing,
See United
Carocci
August of 2012 (when the Vida Life shares would have become
unrestricted) to January of 2014 (when any Vida Life shares were
last traded).
the 400,000 Vida Life shares, the market would have crashed
completely, rendering the shares worthless.
To be sure, Watts expressed a different opinion.
He
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This finding
trading data, which showed that even the unrestricted Vida Life
stock traded very infrequently, in small amounts, and at meager
prices.
Extrapolating
from
this
data,
the
district
court
Where, as here,
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United
When dueling
So it is here.
Affirmed.
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