Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/260/94/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 05:51:26+00:00

Document:
1. A criminal statute dealing with acts that are directly injurious to the government and are capable of perpetration without regard to particular locality, and subjecting all who commit them to punishment, is to be construed as applicable to citizens of the United States upon the high seas or in a foreign country, though there be no express declaration to that effect. P. 260 U. S. 97.
2. Section 35 of the Criminal Code, as amended October 23, 1918, c.194, 40 Stat. 1015, is applicable to citizens of the United States who, on the high seas or in a foreign country, conspired to defraud the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation, of which the United States was the stockholder, by obtaining and aiding to obtain the allowance and payment or a false and fraudulent claim against the Corporation, and who, in a foreign country, made and caused such claim to be made. P. 260 U. S. 100.
3. Penal statutes should be fairly construed according to the legislative intent. P. 260 U. S. 102.
4. Citizens of the United States, while in a foreign country, are subject to penal laws passed by the United States to protect itself and its property, and for infractions abroad are triable, under Jud.Code § 41, in the district where they are first brought. P. 260 U. S. 102.
Error to a judgment of the district court quashing an indictment on demurrer.
This is a writ of error under the Criminal Appeals Act (c. 2564, 34 Stat. c. 2564, 34 Stat. 1246) to review the ruling of the district court sustaining a demurrer of one of the defendants to an indictment for a conspiracy to defraud a corporation in which the United States was and is a stockholder, under § 35 of the Criminal Code, as amended October 23, 1918, c. 194, 40 Stat. 1015.
plan was to be, and was, made possible through the guilty connivance of the Standard Oil agent, Hawkinson, and Millar, the Rio merchant, who was to, and did, collect the money. Overt acts charged included a wireless telegram to the agents, Johnston & Co., from the Dio while on the high seas ordering the 1,000 tons of oil. The Southern District of New York was the district into which the American defendants were first brought and were found, but Millar, the British defendant, has not been found.
The first count charged a conspiracy by the defendants to defraud the Fleet Corporation, in which the United States was a stockholder, by obtaining and aiding to obtain the payment and allowance of a false and fraudulent claim against the Fleet Corporation. It laid the offense on the high seas, out of the jurisdiction of any particular state and out of the jurisdiction of any district of the United States, but within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States. The second count laid the conspiracy on the Dio on the high seas and at the port of Rio de Janeiro, as well as in the city. The third count laid it in the City of Rio de Janeiro. The fourth count was for making and causing to be made in the name of the Standard Oil Company, for payment and approval, a false and fraudulent claim against the Fleet Corporation in the form of an invoice for 1,000 tons of fuel oil, of which 400 tons were not delivered. This count laid the same crime on board the Dio in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. The fifth count laid it in the city, and the sixth at the port and in the city.
within the jurisdiction of Brazil. The district court considered only the first count, which charged the conspiracy to have been committed on the Dio on the high seas, and, having held that bad for lack of jurisdiction, a fortiori it sustained the demurrer as the others.
The court, in its opinion, conceded that, under many authorities, the United States, as a sovereign, may regulate the ships under its flag and the conduct of its citizens while on those ships, and cited to this point Crapo v. Kelly, 16 Wall. 610, 83 U. S. 623-632; United States v. Rodgers, 150 U. S. 249, 150 U. S. 260-261, 150 U. S. 264-265; The Hamilton, 207 U. S. 398, 207 U. S. 403-405; American Banana Co. v. United Fruit Co., 213 U. S. 347; Wilson v. McNamee, 102 U. S. 572, 102 U. S. 574; United States v. Smiley, 6 Sawyer, 640, 645. The court said, however, that while private and public ships of the United States on the high seas were constructively a part of the territory of the United States -- indeed, peculiarly so, as distinguished from that of the states -- Congress had always expressly indicated it when it intended that its laws should be operative on the high seas. The court concluded that, because jurisdiction of criminal offenses must be conferred upon United States courts, and could not be inferred, and because § 35, like all the other sections of c. 4, contains no reference to the high seas as a part of the locus of the offense defined by it, as the sections in cc. 11 and 12 of the Criminal Code do, § 35 must be construed not to extend to acts committed on the high seas. It confirmed its conclusion by the statement that § 35 had never been invoked to punish offenses denounced if committed on the high seas or in a foreign country.
government to punish crime under the law of nations. Crimes against private individuals or their property, like assaults, murder, burglary, larceny, robbery, arson, embezzlement, and frauds of all kinds which affect the peace and good order of the community must, of course, be committed within the territorial jurisdiction of the government where it may properly exercise it. If punishment of them is to be extended to include those committed outside of the strict territorial jurisdiction, it is natural for Congress to say so in the statute, and failure to do so will negative the purpose of Congress in this regard. We have an example of this in the attempted application of the prohibitions of the antitrust law to acts done by citizens of the United States against other such citizens in a foreign country. American Banana Co. v. United Fruit Co., 213 U. S. 347. That was a civil case, but, as the statute is criminal, as well as civil, it appears an analogy.
States furnished or to be used for military or naval service. It would hardly be reasonable to hold that, if any one, certainly if a citizen of the United States, were to steal or embezzle such property which may properly and lawfully be in the custody of army or naval officers either in foreign countries, in foreign ports or on the high seas, it would not be in such places an offense which Congress intended to punish by this section.
United States was the sole stockholder, from fraud of this character. That corporation was expected to engage in, and did engage in, a most extensive ocean transportation business, and its ships were seen in every great port of the world open during the war. The same section of the statute protects the arms, ammunition, stores, and property of the army and navy from fraudulent devices of a similar character. We cannot suppose that, when Congress enacted the statute or amended it, it did not have in mind that a wide field for such frauds upon the government was in private and public vessels of the United States on the high seas and in foreign ports and beyond the land jurisdiction of the United States, and therefore intended to include them in the section.
Nor can the much-quoted rule that criminal statutes are to be strictly construed avail. As said in United States v. Lacher, 134 U. S. 624, 134 U. S. 629, quoting with approval from Sedgwick, Statutory and Const.Law (2d. ed.) 288: "Penal provisions, like all others, are to be fairly construed according to the legislative intent as expressed in the enactment." They are not to be strained either way. It needs no forced construction to interpret § 35 as we have done.
"The trial of all offenses committed upon the high seas, or elsewhere out of the jurisdiction of any particular state or district, shall be in the district where the offender is found, or into which he is first brought."
court below has to punish him when he is brought to trial.
"Whoever shall make or cause to be made or present or cause to be presented, for payment or approval, to or by any person or officer in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, or any department thereof, or any corporation in which the United States of America is a stockholder, any claim upon or against the government of the United States, or any department or officer thereof, or any corporation in which the United States of America is a stockholder, knowing such claim to be false, fictitious, or fraudulent; or whoever, for the purpose of obtaining or aiding to obtain the payment or approval of such claim, or for the purpose and with the intent of cheating and swindling or defrauding the government of the United States, or any department thereof, or any corporation in which the United States of America is a stockholder, shall knowingly and willfully falsify or conceal or cover up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact, or make or cause to be made any false or fraudulent statements or representations, or make or use or cause to be made or used any false bill, receipt, voucher, roll, account, claim, certificate, affidavit or deposition, knowing the same to contain any fraudulent or fictitious statement or entry; or whoever shall take and carry away or take for his own use or for the use of another, with intent to steal or purloin, any personal property of the United States, or any branch or department thereof, or any corporation in which the United States of America is a stockholder; or whoever shall enter into any agreement, combination, or conspiracy to defraud the government of the United States, or any department or officer thereof, or any corporation in which the United States of America is a stockholder, by obtaining or aiding to obtain the payment or allowance of any false or fraudulent claim, and whoever, having charge, possession, custody, or control of any money or other public property used or to be used in the military or naval service, with intent to defraud the United States, or any department thereof, or any corporation in which the United States of America is a stockholder, or willfully to conceal such money or other property, shall deliver or cause to be delivered to any person having authority to receive the same any amount of such money or other property less than that for which he received a certificate or took a receipt; or whoever, being authorized to make or deliver any certificate, voucher, receipt, or other paper certifying the receipt of arms, ammunition, provisions, clothing, or other property so used or to be used, shall make or deliver the same to any other person without a full knowledge of the truth of the facts stated therein and with intent to defraud the United States, or any department thereof, or any corporation in which the United States of America is a stockholder, shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both. And whoever shall purchase, or receive in pledge, from any person any arms, equipment, ammunition, clothing, military stores, or other property furnished by the United States, under a clothing allowance or otherwise, to any soldier, sailor, officer, cadet, or midshipman in the military or naval service of the United States or of the National Guard or Naval Militia, or to any person accompanying, serving, or retained with the land or naval forces and subject to military or naval law, having knowledge or reason to believe that the property has been taken from the possession of the United States or furnished by the United States under such allowance, shall be fined not more than $500 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."

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