Court filing
Response by Eric Dean Sheppard to 228 Notice of Supplemental Authority — USA v. Sheppard (Dkt. 230, S.D. Fla.)
Filed April 11, 2024 in USA v. Sheppard; one of 253 filings from this case.
Record facts
| Court | U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida |
|---|---|
| Filed | 2024-04-11 |
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida · No. 1:22-cr-20290-BB · Doc. 230 · 2024-04-11 · Docket on CourtListener
Full text
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FORIDA CASE No. 22-20290-CR-BLOOM/OTAZO-REYES UNITES STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, v. ERIC DEAN SHEPPARD, Defendant. ____________________________________/ DEFENDANT’S RESPONSE TO THE GOVERNMENT’S NOTICE OF SUPPLEMENTAL AUTHORITY AT [D.E. 228] Both cases the government cites support Sheppard. They reaffirm that, under Takhalov: (1) there must be “intent to harm”; (2) the critical question is whether a misrepresentation goes to “the nature of the bargain”; and (3) a misrepresentation goes to the nature of the bargain when it implicates the victim’s financial interest—i.e., its property interest—in the transaction. United States v. Watkins, 42 F.4th 1278, 1282 n.5, 1287 (11th Cir. 2022); United States v. Waters, 937 F.3d 1344, 1351-57 (11th Cir. 2019). Thus, a defendant commits fraud by, for example, “misleading investors into believing the solicited funds would be used for business purposes,” Watkins, 42 F.4th at 1281, 1282 n.5, or misrepresenting his “creditworthiness,” id. at 1282 n.5 (citing Waters, 937 F.3d at 1357). Here, PPP eligibility criteria were not material to the banks’ financial/property interests in the loans. [D.E. 218 at 12; Hrg. Tr. 52-54]. The banks were financially indifferent to whom they made PPP loans. In fact, the government’s asserted theory of harm is that the banks would have made the loans on the same financial terms to someone else. [Hrg. Tr. 39-40]. The government’s naked fraudulent-inducement theory fails under Takhalov and its progeny. Case 1:22-cr-20290-BB Document 230 Entered on FLSD Docket 04/11/2024 Page 1 of 2 2 Dated: April 11, 2024. Respectfully submitted, NELSON MULLINS One Biscayne Tower, 21st Floor 2 S. Biscayne Boulevard Miami, FL 33131 Telephone: 305.373.9400 By: /s/ Christopher Cavallo Christopher Cavallo Florida Bar No. 0092305 Jayne C. Weintraub Florida Bar No. 320382 Jonathan Etra Florida Bar No. 686905 O’MELVENY & MYERS By: /s/ Jason Zarrow Jason Zarrow (admitted pro hac vice) 400 S. Hope Street Los Angeles, CA 90071 (213) 430-8367 Jeffrey L. Fisher (admitted pro hac vice) 2765 Sand Hill Road Menlo Park, CA 94025 (650) 473-2600 BLACK SREBNICK 201 South Biscayne Boulevard, Suite 1300 Miami, Florida 33131 Tel. (305) 371-6421 By: /s/ Howard Srebnick HOWARD SREBNICK Florida Bar No. 919063 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I HEREBY CERTIFY that on April 11, 2024, the foregoing document was filed via the Court’s CM/ECF system to all counsel of record. By: /s/ Christopher Cavallo Christopher Cavallo Case 1:22-cr-20290-BB Document 230 Entered on FLSD Docket 04/11/2024 Page 2 of 2
File and source
- File
- gov.uscourts.flsd.615773.230.0.pdf
- Size
- 462,832 bytes
- SHA-256
- 600927291fce9ad4a9ce9ecbd490d4e4178e128a19e12c33804c130f212ecbbb
- Original
- PACER (login required)