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YATES v. UNITED STATES 

Opinion of GINSBURG, J.

  “DESTRUCTION  OR  REMOVAL  OF  PROPERTY  TO 
PREVENT SEIZURE.—Whoever, before, during, or after 
any  search  for  or  seizure  of  property  by  any  person 
authorized to make such search or seizure, knowingly
destroys,  damages,  wastes,  disposes  of,  transfers,  or
otherwise takes any action, or knowingly attempts to 
destroy, damage, waste, dispose of, transfer, or other-
wise take any action, for the purpose of preventing or 
impairing  the  Government’s  lawful  authority  to  take 
such property into its custody or control or to continue 
holding  such  property  under  its  lawful  custody  and 
control,  shall  be  fined  under  this  title  or  imprisoned 
not more than 5 years, or both.” 

Yates  does  not  contest  his  conviction  for  violating
§2232(a),  but  he  maintains  that  fish  are  not  trapped 
within  the  term  “tangible  object,”  as  that  term  is  used  in
§1519.

Section 1519 was enacted as part of the Sarbanes-Oxley 
Act  of  2002,  116  Stat.  745,  legislation  designed  to  protect 
investors  and  restore  trust  in  financial  markets  following 
the  collapse  of  Enron  Corporation.  A  fish  is  no  doubt  an 
object  that  is  tangible;  fish  can  be  seen,  caught,  and 
handled, and a catch, as this case illustrates, is vulnerable 
to  destruction.  But  it  would  cut  §1519  loose  from  its
financial-fraud  mooring  to  hold  that  it  encompasses  any 
and  all  objects,  whatever  their  size  or  significance,  de-
stroyed with obstructive intent.  Mindful that in Sarbanes-
Oxley,  Congress  trained  its  attention  on  corporate  and
accounting  deception  and  cover-ups,  we  conclude  that  a 
matching  construction  of  §1519  is  in  order:  A  tangible 
object  captured  by  §1519,  we  hold,  must  be  one  used  to
record or preserve information. 

I 
On August 23, 2007, the Miss Katie, a commercial fish-
ing  boat,  was  six  days  into  an  expedition  in  the  Gulf  of