Compassionate Release Denied to Bankruptcy Fraud Defendant In Kentuc...

A bankruptcy fraud defendant who "relie[d] entirely on the generalized threat of COVID-19" and "failed to explain why he is particularly vulnerable to it" is not entitled to compassionate release under the First Step Act, ruled a federal court in Indiana. 

Todd Wolfe, founder of the defunct Indianapolis debt-collection agency Deca Financial Services Inc., filed the motion to have his prison sentence reduced to time served.  Wolfe pled guilty to wire fraud, bank fraud and bankruptcy fraud charges and was sentenced to concurrent terms of 51 months imprisonment for each offense in June 2017 (press release).  He is incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary in Big Sandy, Kentucky where he began serving his sentence November 29, 2018.  Wolfe's earliest release date is April 11, 2021. 

A court may reduce the term of imprisonment for a federal inmate (who has exhausted all administrative remedies) only for "extraordinary and compelling reasons" and even then must make several specific factual findings required by law.  Among "compelling reasons" suggested in the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines are (i) a terminal illness diagnosis, (ii) serious health condition from which the prisoner is unlikely to recover in prison, (iii) age-related health decline for prisoners more than 65 years old who have served at least 75% of their sentence, and (iv) other family circumstances.  While the law provides a "catch-all" for "extraordinary and compelling reasons" other than those or in combination with them, Wolfe raised a claim that his sentence was miscalculated and he should already have been released to a half-way house or home confinement.  This, according to the district court, was insufficient. 

The court observed that Wolfe does not allege any health conditions that increase his risk for suffering serious complications.  While the defendant made passing reference to COVID-19 in a supplemental filing, "the mere existence of COVID-19 in society and the possibility that it may spread to a particular prison alone cannot independently justify compassionate release, especially considering [the Bureau of Prison's] statutory role, and its extensive and professional efforts to curtail the virus's spread."