A Mainer convicted of fraud appealed his sentence for a second time — and the court upheld the decision that same day.
Nathan Reardon, a former businessman and property manager in the Bangor area, was resentenced July 23 and a self-employment ban was reinstated by U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker.
Reardon submitted a notice of appeal on July 31 before he officially appealed the decision Monday. His sentence was affirmed the same day by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
Such a quick decision by the court is a move rarely seen, and Reardon’s only remaining action on the matter would be to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Reardon cannot be self-employed while he is on supervised release. He was arrested in August 2023 for violating those conditions after the Bangor Daily News found he was still a landlord. Walker sentenced Reardon to nine months in prison and an additional 25 months of supervised release for that violation and four others.
Reardon appealed the self-employment ban in October and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit vacated the decision in May, saying Walker did not properly justify the ban by not providing enough information about why it was the least restrictive way possible to protect the public from Reardon.
Reardon’s second appeal on Monday was quickly shut down by the higher court, saying the sentence is “procedurally sound and substantively reasonable.”
He was convicted of fraud in 2022 for falsifying payroll information to receive a $60,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan. It was his second criminal case in roughly two years. His sentence in November 2022 was for 20 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release, which included the ban from Reardon employing himself during that time.
The probation office filed for Reardon’s supervised release to be revoked within six weeks of him leaving prison because of his probation violations. Walker sentenced Reardon to additional prison time and probation.
Reardon appealed, in part arguing the sentence was unreasonable because it was at the top of the guideline range.
“[Reardon] has not shown that he was unable to comply with his supervised release conditions or even that his efforts to comply were particularly robust,” the appeals court judges said.
The few exhibits of Reardon’s “feeble efforts” to comply with the supervised release conditions don’t mitigate his “flagrant noncompliance,” the appeals court said.
“I hope I haven’t been overly blunt about it, but in the event that being blunt is needed, Mr. Reardon has repeatedly, repeatedly violated the law,” Walker said at the resentencing.
