No. 24-1206

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Appellee,

v.

LESTER ACEITUNO,

Defendant, Appellant.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

[Hon. Landya B. McCafferty, U.S. District Judge]

Before

Gelpí, Lynch, and Thompson, Circuit Judges.

Zainabu Rumala, Federal Public Defender Office, on brief for appellant.

John J. McCormack, Acting United States Attorney, Matthew T. Hunter, Assistant United States Attorney, and Geoffrey W.R. Ward, Assistant United States Attorney, on brief for appellee.

June 2, 2025 LYNCH, Circuit Judge. After a jury trial in 2024, Lester Aceituno was convicted of conspiracy to commit bank fraud under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1344, 1349 and of two counts of aggravated identity theft under 18 U.S.C. § 1028A and sentenced to 30 months in prison. On appeal, he contends that (1) the district court erred in denying his Rule 29 motion which argued that there was insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he knew he was using identifying information of a real person, as is required for an aggravated identity theft conviction, and (2) the government's closing argument, to which there was no objection, and its rebuttal to defense counsel's closing constituted prosecutorial misconduct such that he is entitled to a new trial. We reject his arguments and affirm his conviction.

I. Background A. Sufficiency of the Evidence

As to the first argument, we recount the facts "in the light most hospitable to the verdict, consistent with record support." United States v. Carmona, 103 F.4th 83, 86 (1st Cir. 2024) (quoting United States v. Concepcion-Guliam, 62 F.4th 26, 29 (1st Cir. 2023)).

Between June 2016 and October 2017, at least four individuals engaged in a fraudulent check-cashing scheme in Georgia, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. The scheme was led by a man, Ibiloya, known as "Abby." Abby provided Aceituno and other

- 2 - conspirators with stolen means of identification of real people including names, social security numbers, dates of birth, and counterfeit driver's licenses displaying the conspirator's photographs along with the stolen information. The conspirators used that information to open bank accounts, change the addresses associated with those accounts to rented mailboxes obtained under similar pretenses, and to deposit fraudulent checks. The conspirators then had debit cards shipped to the new addresses and used those cards to access the funds. Aceituno opened such accounts in New Hampshire and Massachusetts using stolen means of identification of real people. He signed signature cards to open such accounts attesting the information was accurate. He also created a mailbox and retrieved a debit card using stolen means of identification of real people for the conspiracy's use.

Chinedu Ihejiere, a co-conspirator, testified for the government. Ihejiere testified that Abby gave him fraudulent checks made out in the name of the account holder which were deposited in the accounts, and after the checks were deposited, co-conspirators withdrew the funds using the debit cards issued from those accounts. Ihejiere and Abby split the withdrawn funds, with Abby receiving 75% and Ihejiere receiving 25%. Ihejiere, who had previously been convicted for other fraud and identity-related offenses, testified that the success of the scheme depended on

- 3 - Abby's identities being real: "[i]f [the infor