The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has affirmed the U.S. District Court for the NMI\u2019s order that denied a motion to reduce the sentence of Bert Douglas Montgomery, who was slapped with a sentence of 20 years in prison in 2003 for his role in the conspiracy to defraud the Bank of Saipan.<\/p>\n
Ninth Circuit judges William C. Canby Jr., A. Wallace Tashima, and Michelle T. Friedland said the District Court correctly rejected Montgomery\u2019s claim that he was eligible for a sentence reduction under Amendment 794 to the sentencing guidelines.<\/p>\n
Amendment 794 generally adopted the approach of the Ninth Circuit and the Seventh District that when a district court conducts an assessment whether a defendant should receive a role reduction, \u201cthe defendant is to be compared with the other participants\u201d in the crime, not with a hypothetical average participant.<\/p>\n
The appellate judges pointed out that the sentencing guideline does not include Amendment 794 on its list of covered amendments.<\/p>\n
The judges cited that in the U.S. v. Ornelas case, the Ninth Circuit ruled that the district court has the authority to lower a sentence if the defendant\u2019s guideline range has been lowered as a result of an amendment listed in the sentencing guidelines.<\/p>\n
The judges said Montgomery does not challenge this conclusion on appeal.<\/p>\n
Rather, the judges said, Montgomery renewed his arguments that the district court lacked jurisdiction over his underlying criminal case, and asserted several new arguments, challenging his convictions.<\/p>\n
Montgomery appealed pro se or without a lawyer.<\/p>\n
In December 2013, then-U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Alex R. Munson imposed a 20-year prison term on Montgomery for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud, and one count of wire fraud: deprivation of honest services, one count of money laundering conspiracy, and three counts of money laundering.<\/p>\n
Munson ordered Montgomery\u2014together with two co-defendants\u2014to pay Bank of Saipan $5.2million in restitution and $109,980 to Michelle Hom, a bank customer.
\nOne of Montgomery\u2019s co-defendants committed suicide in August 2003.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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