United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 21‐3370 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff‐Appellee, v. PETER ARMBRUSTER, Defendant‐Appellant. ____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. No. 2:18‐cr‐00130 — Matthew F. Kennelly, Judge. ____________________

ARGUED AUGUST 3, 2022 — DECIDED SEPTEMBER 7, 2022 ____________________

Before SYKES, Chief Judge, and SCUDDER and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges. SCUDDER, Circuit Judge. Peter Armbruster, former Chief Fi‐ nancial Officer of Roadrunner Transportation Systems, Inc., a public company, went to trial on criminal charges of securities fraud, falsifying accounting records, and related counts. The jury returned a mixed verdict, acquitting him on 11 counts but convicting on the remaining four. Armbruster now challenges those convictions, contending that insufficient evidence 2 No. 21‐3370 supports the adverse verdicts. While the case against Arm‐ bruster may not have been open‐and‐shut, a rational jury could have concluded that the government presented enough evidence to support guilty verdicts on the challenged counts. Because the law requires no more, we affirm. I A Armbruster, a Certified Public Accountant with prior ex‐ perience working at a Big Four accounting firm, began serv‐ ing as the controller for Dawes Transportation in 1990. When Dawes merged with Roadrunner in 2005, Armbruster stayed on as Roadrunner’s Chief Financial Officer. In the years that followed, Roadrunner grew rapidly, acquiring nearly 30 transportation companies and going public in 2010. Arm‐ bruster’s responsibilities as CFO included the preparation, certification, and filing of Roadrunner’s consolidated financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company’s financial statements—consolidated as they were—effectively incorporated the financial affairs of certain of Roadrunner’s subsidiaries, including Morgan Southern, a Georgia‐based transportation company. Consolidating Morgan Southern’s financial statements proved challenging. At the time of its acquisition by Roadrun‐ ner, Morgan Southern’s own accounting practices were lag‐ ging, with the company not regularly reconciling account bal‐ ances and lacking adequate staffing. In 2014, Roadrunner’s then‐controller, Brock Even, recog‐ nized these shortcomings and spearheaded an effort to exam‐ ine the accuracy and integrity of Morgan Southern’s financial accounting and reporting practices. Even enlisted help from No. 21‐3370 3 two of Roadrunner’s then‐departmental controllers, Bret Naggs and Mark Wogsland, who traveled to Morgan South‐ ern’s home office in Georgia to examine the company’s books and records. In November 2014 Stephen Voorhees became Morgan Southern’s controller. Balance sheet review was a key priority for him in that position. But when Voorhees left Roadrunner in April 2016, many deficiencies in Morgan Southern’s ac‐ counting remained unresolved. On his way out, Voorhees conveyed his key concerns and findings to a group of Road‐ runner accountants, with Armbruster too receiving the infor‐ mation. This is where the particulars start to matter. Voorhees found that Morgan Southern had inflated its balance sheet by at least $2 million and perhaps as much as $4–5 million. The overstatement was in part the product of the company carry‐ ing a receivable from IKEA Maersk above its net realizable value—above the amount Morgan Southern could reasonably expect to collect. And so too did Voorhees find that Morgan Sou