United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit

FILED November 15, 2022 No. 21-10996 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk

United States of America,

Plaintiff—Appellee,

versus

Jonathan Dean Davis,

Defendant—Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas USDC No. 3:20-CR-575

Before Clement, Duncan, and Wilson, Circuit Judges. Stuart Kyle Duncan, Circuit Judge: Jonathan Dean Davis was convicted of numerous wire-fraud and money-laundering charges arising from a fraudulent scheme to cause the Department of Veterans Affairs to pay over $71 million in GI-Bill funding to his trade school. Davis raises a menagerie of challenges to his convictions and his sentence. We affirm in nearly all respects, except that we vacate the forfeiture order and remand for further proceedings. Case: 21-10996 Document: 00516545277 Page: 2 Date Filed: 11/15/2022

No. 21-10996

I. Factual and Procedural Background On March 25, 2021, Davis was named in a thirteen-count superseding indictment filed in the Northern District of Texas. 1 Counts 1 through 7 charged Davis with Wire Fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343; and Counts 10 through 13 charged Davis with Money Laundering and Aiding and Abetting, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1952, 1957. 2 Following a trial, a jury convicted Davis on each of these counts on April 15, 2021. The charges stemmed from a scheme Davis concocted to defraud the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) of vast sums of money. To understand this scheme, consider first some background information on the VA and the Post 9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 (“GI Bill”). The GI Bill is an educational benefits program that provides financial assistance to eligible student-veterans. The VA agrees to pay up to a certain amount of a student’s tuition and fees at VA-approved schools. Notably, this means that for a school to receive tuition payments through GI-Bill funding, it must first go through an approval process. This approval is necessary to ensure that veterans receive sound training and that taxpayer funds are not wasted. See Cleland v. Nat’l Coll. of Bus., 435 U.S. 213, 219 (1978). Approval requirements include that the school must have been continuously operational for at least two years and have demonstrated financial stability. To help in the approval process, the VA relies on state-approving agencies that determine which educational institutions are eligible. In Texas, that

1 The superseding indictment is identical to the initial indictment filed on November 18, 2020, except the superseding indictment reflects corrections to minor date errors. 2 Counts 8 and 9 charged Davis with Aggravated Identity Theft, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1022, 1028A. The jury found Davis not guilty of those charges, so they are not at issue in this appeal.

2 Case: 21-10996 Document: 00516545277 Page: 3 Date Filed: 11/15/2022

No. 21-1099