Overview
The federal wire fraud statute is one of the most commonly used weapons in the U.S. Department of Justice's arsenal. The statute makes criminal a broad range of schemes to defraud but is not limitless, as seen prominently in the landmark 2020 U.S. Supreme Court Kelly v. U.S. decision, which held that violations of the wire fraud statute require not only deception, but also an intent to obtain property through the scheme. Last month, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia weighed in on another limiting factor: what it means to obtain money or property, as required by Kelly.
In an article for Law360 titled, "How DC Federal Court Ruling Limits Wire Fraud Act Scope," Ashwin Ram and Galen Kast analyze the implications of the court's decision in U.S. v. Guertin and discuss how the district court's holding is yet another case reining in prosecutors' ability to criminalize unseemly and untruthful conduct that nonetheless falls beyond the scope of the federal fraud statutes.