United States v. Bryan Puckett

KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judge.

*551In this case the government charged the defendants with the wrong crimes. Amir Banyan and Bryan Puckett engaged in a scheme in which they eventually obtained more than $5 million from a pair of mortgage companies by means of fraudulent mortgage applications. The scheme was revealed about two years after it began. Had the government charged Banyan and Puckett with mail or wire fraud within the five-year limitations periods for those offenses, the two likely would have lacked any plausible defense. But for whatever reason the government blew that deadline and instead…