VAN ANTWERPEN, Circuit Judge.
On October 14, 2004, a jury in the Western District of Pennsylvania convicted Frederick Banks on charges of mail fraud, criminal copyright infringement, uttering and possessing counterfeit or forged securities, and witness tampering. These convictions stemmed from Banks’s sales of illegally copied (“pirated”) versions of copyrighted Microsoft software products through an Internet marketplace website, Amazon.com.
Following his conviction, the District Court, on February 25, 2005, imposed on Banks a sentence that varied upward by three months from the advisory sentence range set forth in the United States Sentencing Guidelines (“Guidelines”), and, on the Government’s motion, also issued an in personam forfeiture judgment in the amount of Banks’s mail fraud proceeds.
Before us now is Banks’s appeal from his conviction and sentence, in which he asserts numerous claims of error based on the District Court’s actions before his trial, on events occurring at his
trial, and on the District Court’s actions at his sentencing. Banks was sentenced after the Supreme Court announced its landmark decision in United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (2005).
Of the seven issues Banks raises on appeal, two are novel to this Court. First, Banks raises the question whether the District Court was obligated to provide him with advance notice under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32(h) of its intent, under Booker, to vary its sentence from the advisory sentence range set forth in the Guidelines. Second, Banks questions whether the District Court had statutory authority to order an in personam forfeiture judgment against him for the amount of the proceeds he obtained through his mail fraud.
As we explain below, we find no error in the District Court’s actions before, during, or after Banks’s trial or at his sentencing. Furthermore, we conclude the District Court had statutory authority to issue the in personam forfeiture judgment and was not obligated to provide advance notice of its intent to vary from Banks’s Guidelines sentencing range. Accordingly, we will affirm Banks’s convictions and sentence in their entirety.
