Commonwealth v. Mohammed Matt Reza Enayat.

NOTICE: Summary decisions issued by the Appeals Court pursuant to M.A.C. Rule
23.0, as appearing in 97 Mass. App. Ct. 1017 (2020) (formerly known as rule 1:28,
as amended by 73 Mass. App. Ct. 1001 [2009]), are primarily directed to the parties
and, therefore, may not fully address the facts of the case or the panel's
decisional rationale. Moreover, such decisions are not circulated to the entire
court and, therefore, represent only the views of the panel that decided the case.
A summary decision pursuant to rule 23.0 or rule 1:28 issued after February 25,
2008, may be cited for its persuasive value but, because of the limitations noted
above, not as binding precedent. See Chace v. Curran, 71 Mass. App. Ct. 258, 260
n.4 (2008).

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS

APPEALS COURT

23-P-1359

COMMONWEALTH

vs.

MOHAMMED MATT REZA ENAYAT. 1

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER PURSUANT TO RULE 23.0

After hearing evidence that, in connection with the lease

or purchase of three vehicles, the defendant persuaded a "straw"

purchaser (buyer) to submit to car dealerships credit

applications that misrepresented the buyer's income and

employment, a Superior Court jury convicted the defendant of

three counts of larceny by false pretenses of property valued at

more than $250, G. L. c. 266, § 30 (1), as then in effect; and

three counts of false pretenses related to credit transactions,

G. L. c. 266, § 33 (2). On appeal, the defendant argues that

1As is our custom, we adhere to the spelling of the
defendant's name as it appears in the indictments.
the evidence was insufficient to prove that the car dealerships

or the lending banks relied on the misrepresentations, and the

judge abused his discretion in declining to give a missing

witness jury instruction because the Commonwealth did not

present testimony of any bank employee. The defendant also

contends that a substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice

arose from the prosecutor's closing argument. We affirm.

Background. In 2016, the defendant persuaded the buyer to

accompany him to car dealerships in Norwood and Burlington,

where, purportedly on behalf of ABC Fine Rugs, Inc. (ABC Fine

Rugs), the buyer cosigned three credit applications for

vehicles. 2 For each of the three vehicles, both the buyer and

ABC Fine Rugs were listed as co-lessees or copurchasers. The

address and telephone number listed for the buyer were actually

those of the defendant. The applications contained

representations that the buyer earned an annual salary of

$150,000 as either the president or treasurer of ABC Fine Rugs.

During one of the transactions, the salesperson verified the

buyer's identity by taking a photocopy of an American Express

Business Platinum credit card printed with the buyer's name and

that of ABC Fine Rugs. In fact, the defendant was the owner of

2 The buyer testified pursuant to a cooperation agreement,
and the judge instructed the jury in accordance with
Commonwealth v. Ciampa, 406 Mass. 257, 266 (1989).

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ABC Fine Rugs; the buyer was never a salaried employee of ABC

Fine Rugs, was not its president or treasurer, and did not earn

an annual salary of $150,000, and the American Express card was

not his.

Those transactions resulted in a lease valued at more than

$50,000 of a 2016 Land Rover Range Rover, a loan of more than

$40,000 for the purchase of a 2015 Mercedes-Benz cargo van, and

a loan of more than $80,000 for the purchase of a 2012 Maserati

GranTurismo two-door coupe. The buyer never drove any of the

vehicles. The defendant drove all three vehicles, and kept the

Maserati and the Mercedes-Benz garaged at his home. The

defendant was the only person who drove the Maserati, though his

girlfriend and an ABC Fine Rugs employee sometimes drove the

other two vehicles.

The jury convicted the defendant of the charges outlined

above. 3 The defendant appeals.

Discussion. 1. Sufficiency of the evidence. The

defendant argues that the Commonwealth did not prove that the

car dealerships or the banks relied on any misstatements in the

credit applications. Considering the evidence in the light most

favorable to the Commonwealth, see Commonwealth v. Lewis, 48

3 After a bifurcated, jury-waived trial, the judge also
convicted the defendant of being a common and notorious thief,
G. L. c. 266, § 40.

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Mass. App. Ct. 343, 351 (1999), citing Commonwealth v. Latimore,

378 Mass. 671, 676-677 (1979), we conclude that the evidence

sufficed to permit a rational trier of fact to conclude that the

car dealerships and the banks relied on one or more false

statements in the credit applications.

The offense of larceny by false pretenses required proof

that a false statement materially influenced the dealership to

part with its property. See Commonwealth v. Edgerly, 6 Mass.

App. Ct. 241, 263 (1978). Similarly, the offense of false

pretenses related to credit transactions required proof that a

false statement materially influenced the banks to extend

credit. See Commonwealth v. Duddie Ford, Inc., 28 Mass. App.

Ct. 426, 441 (1990), S.C., 409 Mass. 388, 396-397 (1991).

"[T]he false statements 'need not be the sole or predominating

motive that induced the victim[s] to part with [their] money or

property . . . [;] it is enough if [the statements] alone or

with other causes materially influenced [them] to take the

particular action.'" Duddie Ford, Inc., supra, quoting Edgerly,

supra. Thus, the evidence would be sufficient if the

Commonwealth proved that a "fraudulent representation 'was a

decisive although not the sole influence operating upon the mind

of the person to induce the giving up of money [or property].'"

Edgerly, supra, quoting Commonwealth v. Farmer, 218 Mass. 507,

513 (1914). See Lewis, 48 Mass. App. Ct. at 351.

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The jury could find that the dealerships and the banks

relied on the buyer's statements in the applications. Each of

the three credit applications contained printed language

warning, "You understand that we will rely on the information in

this credit application in making our decision." In addition,

the finance director for the Land Rover dealership testified

that a lending bank uses the information in the credit

application, including the salary of the borrower, to make the

decision whether to approve the loan. Cf. Duddie Ford, Inc., 28

Mass. App. Ct. at 440 (bank vice president testified that,

although he was not familiar with specific car loan, it was

"banking industry practice" to rely on information in

application for loan).

Focusing on the false statements that the buyer earned a

$150,000 salary, the defendant argues that the Commonwealth did

not prove that the dealerships or the banks relied on that

information, positing that a bank might extend credit based on a

purchaser's credit score alone. We are not persuaded. A

reasonable juror could infer that the banks and car dealerships

relied on false statements in the credit applications, which

were not limited to the buyer's purported income. Indeed,

nearly every statement in the credit applications was false.

The other false statements included that the buyer was employed

by and an officer of ABC Fine Rugs, had the authority to cosign

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for the loan on its behalf, and possessed the American Express

Business Platinum card associated with that business. They also

misrepresented the buyer's employment history, the amount he

paid toward his monthly rent, and his address and telephone

number, which were actually those of the defendant. Whether a

car dealership or bank relied more heavily on a particular one

of those false statements does not matter. See Edgerly, 6 Mass.

App. Ct. at 263. We conclude that the jury could find that the

car dealerships and the banks relied on at least one of those

false statements.

The defendant also argues, with little elaboration, that

the Commonwealth failed to prove that he made the false

statements or caused them to be made. We disagree. The

evidence showed that the defendant arranged all of the deals and

benefited from them, but the buyer gained no benefit. In

addition, the buyer testified that he did not make the false

statements, and that the defendant handed him the completed

paperwork and told him to sign. Based on this evidence, the

jury could have found that the defendant made the false

statements or, at a minimum, caused them to be made.

2. Absence of missing witness instruction. The defendant

contends that the judge abused his discretion by declining to

give a missing witness instruction with respect to the

Commonwealth's failure to call a witness from any of the banks.

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"Because such an instruction can be a powerful influence on

the jury, a missing witness instruction should be provided 'only

in clear cases, and with caution.'" Commonwealth v. Wilkerson,

486 Mass. 159, 177 (2020), quoting Commonwealth v. Williams, 475

Mass. 705, 721 (2016). See Mass. G. Evid. § 1111 note (2025).

"The decision whether to give a missing witness instruction is

committed to the 'discretion of the trial judge, and will not be

reversed unless the decision was manifestly unreasonable.'"

Wilkerson, supra, quoting Commonwealth v. Saletino, 449 Mass.

657, 667 (2007).

As discussed above, the jury could infer from the credit

applications and the testimony of the Land Rover dealership's

finance director that the banks relied on the

misrepresentations. In those circumstances, the Commonwealth

could have determined that the testimony of a bank employee

would have been cumulative and not necessary to its case. See

Saletino, 449 Mass. at 668 ("[missing witness] instruction

should not be given where the Commonwealth has legitimate

tactical reasons for not calling the witness"). As the judge

suggested, defense counsel argued in closing that by not

presenting the testimony of a bank employee, the Commonwealth

had not proven its case. Unlike such an argument, however, a

missing witness instruction would have informed the jury that

they were permitted to infer that, if called as a witness, a

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bank employee would have given testimony unfavorable to the

Commonwealth. See id. at 672. As the judge found, however,

that inference "call[ed] for significant speculation and a huge

inferential leap from [the] evidence." We discern no abuse of

discretion in the judge's ruling declining to give such an

instruction.

3. Prosecutor's closing argument. Finally, the defendant

argues that a substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice arose

from the prosecutor's closing argument. The defendant contends

that the prosecutor committed misconduct by referring in closing

to facts not in evidence, disparaging the defendant's case, and

injecting his personal beliefs.

First, the defendant argues that the prosecutor argued

facts not in evidence when he said, "everyone knows that [the

banks are] going to rely on this, and that they did rely on it

because . . . a loan was made based on this." The defendant

reads "this" to be referring to the false statement about the

buyer's income. Considering the statement in context, we think

the fairer reading is that the prosecutor was referring to the

information in the credit applications as a whole. In any

event, even if the statement is susceptible of either reading,

we conclude that no substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice

arose, for the reasons stated below.

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Second, the defendant argues that the prosecutor

impermissibly characterized as "bunk" defense counsel's argument

that the banks had not relied on the misstatements in the credit

applications. "A prosecutor may address a particular point in

defense counsel's closing argument as a sham, but he may not

characterize the entire defense as such." Commonwealth v.

Lewis, 465 Mass. 119, 130 (2013). We have carefully reviewed

the arguments of both counsel. We read the prosecutor's closing

as addressing a particular point in defense counsel's closing --

that the banks had not relied on the misstatements -- and

characterizing it as "bunk," rather than disparaging the entire

defense. See Commonwealth v. Kostka, 489 Mass. 399, 415-417

(2022) ("not improper" for prosecutor to characterize as

"gamesmanship" defense counsel's attack on validity of lottery

records); Lewis, supra. Contrast Commonwealth v. Fahey, 99

Mass. App. Ct. 304, 313 (2021) (prosecutor "crossed the line by

excessively mocking the defendant's defense," calling theory

"this ridiculous, ridiculous notion").

Finally, the defendant contends that the prosecutor

injected his personal beliefs by using the words "I know." The

prosecutor argued, "I don't know much about straw purchases, but

I know that I cannot buy a car for [co-counsel] . . . and make

her financially responsible for it . . . and I get the benefit

of driving it." Contrary to the defendant's argument, that

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explanation of a straw purchase was merely an illustration and

did not amount to the prosecutor's injecting his personal

beliefs about the credibility of witnesses. See Commonwealth v.

DaCosta, 96 Mass. App. Ct. 105, 116-117 (2019) (in context,

prosecutor did not inject personal beliefs by arguing,

"[c]ommonsense would tell me that if my friend was going to rob

a drug dealer who might be armed, I wouldn't be in a big hurry

to get out of that car when your friend does").

The defendant did not object to these remarks, which is

some indication that their tone and manner were not unfairly

prejudicial. 4 See Commonwealth v. Camacho, 472 Mass. 587, 609

(2015). The judge instructed, both at the beginning of trial

and again in his final charge, that closing arguments are not

4 The defendant did object to the prosecutor's comment,
without basis in the evidence, that "maybe [a bank] called up
the defendant." The judge gave a prompt curative instruction,
and the defendant does not raise the issue on appeal.

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evidence. We conclude that no substantial risk of a miscarriage

of justice arose.

Judgments affirmed.

By the Court (Shin, Grant &
Hershfang, JJ. 5),

Clerk

Entered: December 8, 2025.

5 The panelists are listed in order of seniority.

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