Ex-Army Reserve convicted of wire fraud requests early release

By KIMBERLY A. BAUTISTA
kimberly_bautista@saipantribune.com
REPORTER

A former U.S. Army Reserve member who is currently serving a 28-month prison term for wire fraud has asked the federal court for early release because of potential contraction of COVID-19 from other inmates.

According to court documents, Danielle Pfifferling, who represents Jordan Jucutan, said due to his client’s underlying medical condition, obesity and asthma, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised that this would put him at an increased risk of severe illness from coronavirus.

Pfifferling noted that four inmates in Jucutan’s prison have recently tested positive for COVID-19.

“Due to the communal living conditions, where social distancing is nearly impossible, it’s only a matter of time before other inmates contract COVID-19 at Sheridan Federal Correctional Institution,” she said.

Pfifferling asked the court for a reduction of Jucutan’s prison sentence to time served and for immediate release, adding that the compassionate release statute allows a court to reduce a sentence for ‘extraordinary and compelling reasons.’

Pfifferling said Jucutan’s serious health conditions and vulnerability to COVID-19 are extraordinary and compelling reasons warranting such a reduction.
She added that Jucutan has exhausted all his administrative remedies and qualifies for immediate compassionate release.

Jucutan started serving his sentence on July 17, 2019 and with four months reduction for good time, he is scheduled to be released on July 11, 2021.

Jucutan was convicted on the charge of engaging in a scheme to defraud the U.S. government and obtaining money falsely by claiming he referred nominees or potential soldiers to enlist in the Army Reserve through the AR-RAP program and received $2,000 for every nominee that enlisted and went through the training.

Jucutan said he recruited a total of 38 nominees. He signed a sworn affidavit admitting he “stole” the personal information of four nominees, entered their information into the Docupak webpage and received $9,000 for the nominations.
Dokupak runs the AR-RAP program.

On May 26, 2016, a federal jury found Jucutan guilty of four counts of wire fraud and four counts of aggravated identity theft in connection with the scheme to defraud the Army Reserves Recruiter Assistant Program.