The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida denied the request of a bankruptcy fraud defendant to modify the terms of his supervised released. David Griffin was convicted, in connection a mortgage rescue scheme, of bankruptcy fraud and making a false material statement under oath during a section 341(a) meeting of creditors. He was sentenced to concurrent 36 month terms in prison, followed by concurrent 36 month terms of supervised release.
As a special condition of supervised released, the court imposed an occupational restriction prohibiting the defendant from working in any capacity in the real estate field. Griffin moved for relief explaining that he seeks to be employed in the real estate field under the supervision of a licensed Florida attorney, conducting real property closings. In that capacity, the defendant would be privy to personal identifying information of borrowers and would be handling closing documents in a fiduciary capacity. The court denied the motion in a short order issued in United States v. Griffin, No. 8: 15-CR-157-T-27MAP (February 11, 20202) (here).
According to the court, the defendant should not be employed in any capacity involving real property matters or positions of trust, considering the nature of the scheme to defraud he devised. "The restriction has a reasonably direct relationship with the conduct relevant to Defendant's offenses and is reasonably necessary to protect the public from the possibility that he will continue to engage in unlawful conduct similar to that of which he was convicted."
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