United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit No. 17-1503 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee, v. ALBA PENA, a/k/a Alba Toribio, Defendant, Appellant. No. 17-1504 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee, v. INDRANIS ROCHEFORD, Defendant, Appellant. APPEALS FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS [Hon. Timothy S. Hillman, U.S. District Judge] Before Torruella, Selya and Barron, Circuit Judges. James L. Sultan, with whom Kerry A. Haberlin and Rankin & Sultan were on brief, for appellant Pena. Leonardo A. Angiulo for appellant Rocheford. Randall E. Kromm, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Andrew E. Lelling, United States Attorney, was on brief, for appellee. December 14, 2018 BARRON, Circuit Judge. Alba Pena ("Pena") and Indranis Rocheford ("Rocheford") are sisters, who in 2017 were each convicted of multiple counts of wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343. They had been charged with participating, along with their mother, Patria Zuniga ("Zuniga"), in a scheme to defraud immigrants by falsely promising them that Zuniga would, in return for payment, secure valid immigration status documents for them. We now reject the challenges to the convictions that each sister brings on appeal, as well as the challenge that Rocheford brings to her sentence. We thus affirm the judgments below. I. Zuniga, Pena, and Rocheford were each indicted, on July 16, 2015, in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts on various counts of wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343. That indictment charged Zuniga and the sisters with eight separate counts of wire fraud, based on a "[s]cheme to defraud" that, according to the superseding indictment, began in 2009 and extended through 2013. The indictment also included a forfeiture allegation. The indictment began by describing the alleged fraudulent scheme and the role that Zuniga and the sisters allegedly played in it. Specifically, the indictment alleged that Zuniga and the two sisters "devised and intended to devise" the scheme in order "to defraud and for obtaining money . . . from . - 3 - . . the victim-immigrants . . . by causing and fraudulently inducing [them] to pay significant sums of money in exchange for immigration status documents which [Zuniga, Pena, and Rocheford] promised that Zuniga could secure on their behalf." The indictment further alleged that "[t]o accomplish this" fraud, Zuniga and the two sisters "falsely and fraudulently represented to the victim- immigrants that Zuniga worked for United States immigration authorities and could obtain legal immigration status documents for each immigrant-victim in exchange for payments ranging from $8,000 to $14,000." And, the indictment also alleged, "[i]n reliance" on these false and fraudulent representations, "the victim-immigrants made payments directly to [Zuniga, Pena, and Rocheford] or to parties specifically designated by" them "in various ways, including but not limited to, interstate bank deposits and interstate wire transfers." The indictment then set forth the eight specific counts of wire fraud. Each count corresponded to a separate wire transfer or electronic bank deposit that allegedly had been made in ...
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