No. 22-1677

UNITED STATES,

Appellee,

v.

GUILLERMO GONZÁLEZ-SANTILLAN,

Defendant, Appellant.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO

[Hon. Francisco A. Besosa, U.S. District Judge]

Before

Rikelman, Hamilton, and Thompson, Circuit Judges.

Raúl S. Mariani Franco, for appellant.

Ricardo A. Imbert-Fernández, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Mariana E. Bauzá-Almonte, Assistant United States Attorney, Chief, Appellate Division, and W. Stephen Muldrow, United States Attorney, were on brief, for appellee.

July 11, 2024

 Of the Seventh Circuit, sitting by designation. THOMPSON, Circuit Judge. A person absconds when he "depart[s] secretly and hide[s] [himself]." Merriam Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/absconds (last visited June 10, 2024) [https://perma.cc/4C43-7TLW]. That's precisely what Appellant Guillermo González-Santillan ("González-Santillan ") did. In 2009, González-Santillan fled Puerto Rico to evade his sentencing hearing for conspiracy to commit money laundering after entering into -- and pleading guilty pursuant to -- a plea agreement with the government. After being on the run for thirteen years, González-Santillan was eventually caught in the Dominican Republic and returned to the United States, where he awaited sentencing. However, now González-Santillan faced a recommended two-point obstruction-of-justice sentencing enhancement for his abscondment.

The upshot. Currently, González-Santillan is serving a seventy-month term of imprisonment. In this appeal, he asks us to vacate his sentence and judgment and to remand because, in his telling, the district court erred in imposing the enhancement. On review, we aren't persuaded and therefore decline the invitation to let González-Santillan escape his sentence.

- 2 - HOW GONZÁLEZ-SANTILLAN GOT HERE1

Beginning in 2007, González-Santillan conspired with his co-defendants to launder drug money. As a part of their scheme, they moved drug money belonging to Colombian traffickers into various United States bank accounts. Collectively their conspiracy delivered deposits of over $2,000,000, and González-Santillan himself was involved in the delivery of over $1,500,000 for depositing. This all came to a head in 2008 when González-Santillan was indicted by a grand jury in the District of Puerto Rico on one count of conspiring to commit money laundering and five counts of aiding and abetting money laundering. In due course, González-Santillan and the government struck a plea deal in which González-Santillan agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering (count one) in exchange for the government's dismissal of his other counts at sentencing (counts two through six).2

1We glean the relevant facts from the plea agreement, presentence investigation report, and transcript of the sentencing hearing. See United States v. Ubiles-Rosario, 867 F.3d 277, 280 n.2 (1st Cir. 2017); see, e.g., United States v. Lasalle González, 857 F.3d 46, 52 (1st Cir. 2017).

2 González-Santillan pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering under 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h), which in relevant part provides that "[a]ny person who conspires to commit any offense defined in this section or section 1957 shall be subject to the same penalties as those prescribed for the offense the comm