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ATLANTA (CN) — A woman convicted of a wire fraud scheme involving ticket sales for a tennis tournament must pay thousands of dollars in restitution in compliance with an order entered after her three-year probation sentence ended, a panel of the 11th Circuit unanimously ruled Tuesday.
A Florida federal judge in 2022 ordered Mikel Mims to comply with a schedule to pay $255,620 in restitution following her 2014 guilty plea to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Mims and co-conspirator Simon Habbershaw perpetrated a five-year scheme to sell tickets for the Sony Open Tennis tournament — now called the Miami Open — and pocket proceeds that should have gone to their employer.
Mims paid approximately $58,000 in restitution but stopped making payments after she completed her probation in 2017, prompting Chief U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga to order her compliance with the original 2014 restitution order.
A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit on Tuesday rejected Mims’ argument that Altonaga lacked jurisdiction to enforce the restitution order because her term of probation is over. The lower court had “ancillary jurisdiction” to enforce the order regardless of the closure of Mims’ criminal case, the Atlanta-based appeals court ruled.
An attorney for Mims told the panel at a hearing in September that the government should have initiated separate civil proceedings to enforce the restitution order.
But U.S. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Branch batted away that argument in the panel’s 14-page opinion, writing, “District courts have the authority to enforce their own criminal sentences and here the district court did so after giving Mims notice and opportunities to respond.”
The Donald Trump appointee noted that Mims failed to respond to three forms mailed by the government in 2021 requesting financial documentation. Mims could have responded to those forms and told the government her financial circumstances had changed, Branch pointed out.
“By failing to make her required payments under the restitution order, Mims violated her criminal sentence,” wrote Branch.
The panel also ruled that Mims’ right to due process was not violated by the entry of the compliance order since she had multiple opportunities to be heard on the issue.
“Mims rejected her opportunity to be heard on her compliance with the restitution order or her ability to repay the debt: she either did not respond (as with the government’s three requests for financial information) or used her opportunity merely to contest the district court’s jurisdiction (as with the hearing and written briefing),” Branch opined.
Branch was joined on the panel by U.S. Circuit Judge Britt Grant, a fellow Trump appointee, and U.S. Circuit Judge Jill Pryor, a Barack Obama appointee.
An attorney for Mims declined to comment on the ruling when reached Tuesday.
According to the indictment, Mims and Habbershaw worked for IMG Worldwide, the company that ran the tournament on Key Biscayne, and used their roles as sponsor and patron coordinators to arrange for a vendor to print extra tournament tickets.
Mims and Habbershaw sold the tickets to customers who paid money directly into their accounts. The scam netted the two defendants between $200,000 and $400,000.
Habbershaw also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay $104,292 in restitution.
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