Do The Crime, Do the Time

Serial Fraudster Loses Request to Shorten Supervised Release

Barry Zalma

Jan 20, 2025

Transcript

ANALYSIS

The primary purpose of supervised release is to facilitate the integration of offenders back into the community rather than to punish them. Congress has provided the sentencing court with the authority to terminate a defendant’s term of supervised release early pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e).

The factors the court must consider include:

1. the nature and circumstances of the offense and the defendant’s history and characteristics;
2. the need to afford adequate deterrence to criminal conduct, protect the public from further crimes of the defendant, and provide him with needed educational or vocational training, medical care, or other correctional treatment in the most effective manner;
3. the kinds of sentence and sentencing range established for the defendant’s crimes;
4. pertinent policy statements issued by the United States Sentencing Commission;
5. the need to avoid unwarranted sentence disparities among defendants with similar records who have been found guilty of similar conduct; and
6. the need to provide restitution to any victims of the offense.

In the present case, on September 11,2019, Defendant Capozzi pleaded guilty to Counts 1 and 7 of the Indictment, specifically Conspiracy to Defraud the Government with Respect to Claims and Aggravated Identity Theft and Aiding and Abetting the same.

Conspiracy to Defraud the Government with Respect to Claims and Aggravated Identity Theft and Aiding and Abetting the same.

Capozzi’s convictions included his involvement in an extensive scheme from 2010 to 2014 to defraud the Department of the Treasury through the filing of false income tax returns. The falsified tax returns often used the identities of individuals, many of whom were incarcerated, who had no knowledge that returns were being filed in their name.

Since the age of 19 the most recent convictions prior to the commencement of the instant case in 2016 include a state court conviction in 2013 for “Fraud in Completing Insurance Claims; Insurance Fraud; Theft by Deception; and Conspiracy – Theft by Deception” due to Capozzi’s submission in 2011 of false employment information to Allstate Insurance to receive disability benefits to which he was not entitled.

On September 9, 2020, the USDC sentenced Capozzi to a term of incarceration of 70 months, to be followed by a term of supervised release of 3 years. Capozzi began his three-year term of supervised release in mid-2023 and has now served approximately 20-months of his supervised release term. Capozzi moved for early termination of his supervised release.

Capozzi presented little evidence that “new or unforeseen circumstances” have arisen warranting the early termination of Defendant’s supervised release.

Capozzi’s history and characteristics, and in particular his history of engaging in various types of fraudulent activity since 2010, as evidenced by his convictions in the current action as well as those in 2013 and 2014, weigh against early termination of his supervised release and demonstrate a need for continued supervision.

Defendant Capozzi’s letter-motion requesting early termination of his supervised release was denied.

ZALMA OPINION

Mr. Capozzi was a seasoned fraudster whose schemes cheated the government, the public and the insurance industry out of millions of dollars. His last conviction put him in jail for 70 months and 36 months of Supervised Release (parole). He asked the court to let him free of the supervised release but without sufficient evidence. He was a serious criminal and every time he was jailed he came out and committed more fraudulent crimes and sought mercy without any hope he will not commit more fraud.