Opinion ID: 795347
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: A disjunctive reading of the statute

Text: 7 The relevant portion of the wire fraud statute reads as follows: 8 Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. 18 U.S.C. § 1343 (emphasis added). 1 9 Males' argument that the district court erred by reading the requirement of the first two phrases of § 1343 in the disjunctive verges on the frivolous. It is well established that the language in § 1343, scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, is not to be read in the disjunctive. See Cleveland v. United States, 531 U.S. 12, 26, 121 S.Ct. 365, 148 L.Ed.2d 221 (2000) (reaffirming that § 1341 should not be read in the disjunctive). Although during the charge conference, outside the presence of the jury, Judge Kaplan stated that the statute is written in the disjunctive, the actual instruction that he gave to the jury properly conjoined the two components. The district court instructed the jury that the phrase any scheme or artifice to defraud is defined as: 10 [A]ny plan, device or course of action that deprives another of money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations or promises. It is, in other words, a plan to deprive another of money or property by trick, deceit, deception, swindle or overreaching. 11 That instruction comports with the Supreme Court's command that the statute be read conjunctively to require that the defendant not only devise a scheme or artifice, but also use that scheme or artifice to obtain money or property. Id. Thus, although the district court spoke in passing about the disjunctive nature of § 1343's phrasing, there was no error in the jury charge on that point. 12