⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The First Circuit hears Jayson Pastrana-Roman's challenge to a thirty-three-month federal sentence. Pastrana-Roman joined a Puerto Rico scheme involving fraudulent COVID-19 relief-loan applications. He recruited three other applicants, served as their link to the scheme's organizer, and collected their kickback checks for delivery up the chain. He later pleaded guilty without a plea agreement. At sentencing, the judge added three offense levels for acting as a manager or supervisor, denied a three-level reduction for accepting responsibility, calculated a range of fifty-one to sixty-three months, then imposed thirty-three months. The appeal asks whether recruiting and relaying instructions showed authority over another participant, whether the acceptance reduction was wrongly denied, and whether any mistake was harmless because the judge said she would impose the same sentence either way.

United States v. Pastrana-Roman (No. 25-1178) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, argued September 16, 2026.