United States v. Sine

OPINION

BERZON, Circuit Judge.

Defendant Wesley Sine, a Utah lawyer, helped run a pyramid scheme that defrauded victims of more than two million dollars. Sine’s role in the scheme was to reassure individuals that they were lending money to a legitimate real estate investor and that millions of dollars in legitimate collateral protected them in case of default. Once the scheme started to unravel and it became clear that the collateral was worthless, Sine began to weave a “good faith” defense to his actions, claiming that it was as much of a surprise to him as to anybody else that the collateral…