United States v. Jason Edward Lopez

── United States v. Jason Edward Lopez ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Date: April 17, 2026 Category: NEW USCA11 Case: 22-13371 Document: 53-1 Date Filed: 04/17/2026 Page: 1 of 10 NOT FOR PUBLICATION In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 22-13371 ____________________ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus JASON EDWARD LOPEZ, Defendant-Appellant. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 9:22-cr-80054-DMM-1 ____________________ Before LUCK, LAGOA, and WILSON, Circuit Judges. LUCK, Circuit Judge: Jason Edward Lopez defrauded Medicare and the Small Business Administration. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to forty-eight months in prison. Lopez appeals his sentence, arguing that the district court erred in calculating his advisory guideline USCA11 Case: 22-13371 Document: 53-1 Date Filed: 04/17/2026 Page: 2 of 10 2 Opinion of the Court 22-13371 range because the loss amount it used was too high and the ac- ceptance-of-responsibility reduction it made was too low. After careful review, and with the benefit of oral argument, we agree with Lopez that the district court miscalculated his guideline range because the acceptance-of-responsibility reduction was too low, and the error was not harmless. So, we vacate his sentence and remand for resentencing with the correct guideline range. FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY In 2019 and 2020, Lopez conspired with three others to de- fraud Medicare—a federal healthcare program that provides low- cost benefits to the elderly and disabled. Lopez co-owned and op- erated two companies that sold medical equipment to Medicare beneficiaries. Medicare paid for the equipment when it was pre- scribed by a doctor as medically necessary for a beneficiary. Lopez’s scheme involved paying healthcare marketers for doctors’ orders prescribing the medical equipment his companies sold, even though the equipment was not medically necessary. When beneficiaries purchased the equipment, Lopez billed Medi- care for it. Lopez and his coconspirators submitted nearly $2.6 mil- lion in fraudulent claims to Medicare, and Medicare paid more than $900,000 based on the claims. While Lopez was in the midst of his Medicare fraud scheme, he applied for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan from the Small Business Administration for $105,000. Congress authorized these loans as part of a Covid-19 relief package, and they came with for- givable advances of up to $10,000. Lopez’s loan application falsely USCA11 Case: 22-13371 Document: 53-1 Date Filed: 04/17/2026 Page: 3 of 10 22-13371 Opinion of the Court 3 represented that his company was not engaged in any illegal activ- ity. Based on this misrepresentation, Lopez’s company received an advance of $7,000 from the Administration. In April 2022, a federal grand jury indicted Lopez on four counts of healthcare fraud, one count of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud, three counts of paying kickbacks in connection with a federal healthcare pro