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Page Number: 8.0

6 

KELLY v. UNITED STATES 

Opinion of the Court 

“Is it wrong that I am smiling?”  Id., at 990 (Kelly text mes-
sage).  The three merrily kept the lane realignment in place 
for  another  three  days.  It  ended  only  when  the  Port  Au-
thority’s Executive Director found out what had happened 
and reversed what he called their “abusive decision.”  Id., 
at 963 (e-mail of Patrick Foye).

The  fallout  from  the  scheme  was  swift  and  severe. 
Baroni, Kelly, and Wildstein all lost their jobs.  More to the 
point  here,  they  all  ran  afoul  of  federal  prosecutors.
Wildstein pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and agreed 
to cooperate with the Government.  Baroni and Kelly went
to trial on charges of wire fraud, fraud on a federally funded 
program  or  entity  (the  Port  Authority),  and  conspiracy  to
commit each of those crimes.  The jury found both of them 
guilty  on  all  counts.  The  Court  of  Appeals  for  the  Third
Circuit affirmed, rejecting Baroni’s and Kelly’s claim that
the evidence was insufficient to support their convictions. 
See United States v. Baroni, 909 F. 3d 550, 560–579 (2018). 
We granted certiorari.  588 U. S. ___ (2019). 

II 
The  Government  in  this  case  needed  to  prove  property
fraud.  The federal wire fraud statute makes it a crime to 
effect (with use of the wires) “any scheme or artifice to de-
fraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false 
or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises.”  18 
U. S. C. §1343.  Construing that disjunctive language as a 
unitary  whole,  this  Court  has  held  that  “the  money-or- 
property requirement of the latter phrase” also limits the 
former.  McNally  v.  United  States,  483  U. S.  350,  358 
(1987).  The wire fraud statute thus prohibits only deceptive
“schemes to deprive [the victim of] money or property.”  Id., 
at 356.  Similarly, the federal-program fraud statute bars 
“obtain[ing] by fraud” the “property” (including money) of a
federally funded program or entity like the Port Authority. 
§666(a)(1)(A).  So under either provision, the Government