Opinion ID: 8414535
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: “Obtainable” Property

Text: Relying on Sekhar v. United States, — U.S. —, 133 S.Ct. 2720, 186 L.Ed.2d 794 (2013), Finazzo contends that the district court’s “right to control” jury instructions were erroneous because the district court failed to instruct the jury that the property sought through the fraud must be “obtainable” to satisfy the mail and wire fraud statutes. He argues that his mail and wire fraud convictions must therefore be vacated because Aéropostale’s right to control its assets is not “obtainable” property. See Finazzo Br. at 62 (“Because Aéropostale’s decision making, its corporate governance, was not property that could be obtained by Mr. Finazzo, his wire/mail fraud convictions must be vacated.”). We reject his argument and hold that the mail and wire fraud statutes do not require that the property involved in the fraud be “obtainable.” In Scheidler v. National Organization for Women, Inc., 537 U.S. 393, 123 S.Ct. 1057, 154 L.Ed.2d 991 (2003), respondents brought a class action suit alleging that petitioners — abortion opponents who attempted to shut down health-care clinics that performed abortions — committed Hobbs Act extortion. Id. at 397-98, 123 S.Ct. 1057. Under the Hobbs Act, “extortion” is defined as “the obtaining of property from another, with his consent, induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence, or fear, or under color of official right.” 18 U.S.C. § 1951(b)(2) (emphasis added). The Supreme Court ruled that the Hobbs Act “require[s] that a person must ‘obtain’ property from another party to commit extortion.” Id. at 404, 123 S.Ct. 1057. Because petitioners “did not obtain or attempt to obtain property from respondents” by protesting abortion clinics, the Court concluded that they did not commit Hobbs Act extortion. Id. at 409, 123 S.Ct. 1057. In Porcelli v. United States, 404 F.3d 157 (2d Cir. 2005), the appellant — an operator of multiple gas stations who devised a scheme to avoid paying New York state sales tax on his gasoline sales, see id. at 158 — invoked Scheidler, arguing that his mail fraud conviction should be vacated because the mail fraud statute “should ... be construed in pari materia with the Hobbs Act, to require as an element of the crime, that Appellant actually obtained or sought to obtain money or property,” id. at 161. He claimed that since he already possessed the property he was convicted of scheming to acquire, “obtaining” that property was impossible. Id. at 161-62. We rejected the appellant’s argument. We noted that “[ajlthough written in the disjunctive, the mail [and wire] fraud statutefs] do[ ] not criminalize two separate acts.” Id. at 162. Instead, the statute is interpreted to criminalize any scheme or artifice for obtaining money or property. Id. However, we ruled that a “defendant does not need to literally ‘obtain’ money or property to violate the statute[sj.” Id. “The fact that the Hobbs Act and the mail and wire fraud statutes contain the word ‘obtain’ does not necessitate imposing Scheidler’s construction of a wholly separate statute onto this Court’s pre-existing construction of the mail fraud statute.” Id. Thus, we rejected the appellant’s argument that the mail fraud statute requires that defendants obtain or seek to obtain money or property. Id. This view has been endorsed by our sister circuits. For instance, in United States v. Welch, 327 F.3d 1081 (10th Cir. 2003), the Tenth Circuit specifically stated that “[i]n contrast to the Hobbs Act, neither the mail nor wire fraud statute requires that a defendant ‘obtain’ property before violating the statute.” Id. at 1108 n.27. In United States v. Hedaithy, 392 F.3d 580 (3d Cir. 2004), the Third Circuit rejected defendants’ argument that “any violation of the mail fraud statute must involve a scheme for obtaining the victim’s property.” Id. at 602. The Court reasoned that the mail fraud statute “was ... intended to cover any scheme or artifice to defraud one of his money or property, including [but not limited to] any scheme for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent promises.” Id. (alterations and internal quotation marks omitted). The Court distinguished Scheidler, pointing out that “[u]nlike the mail fraud statute, the Hobbs Act expressly requires the Government to prove that the defendant ‘obtain[ed] property from another.’ ” Id. at n.21 (quoting 18 U.S.C. § 1951(b)(2)). Similarly, in United States v. Kincaid-Chauncey, 556 F.3d 923 (9th Cir. 2009), abrogated on other grounds by Skilling v. United States, 561 U.S. 358, 130 S.Ct. 2896, 177 L.Ed.2d 619 (2010), the Ninth Circuit stated that “[fjraud to obtain property is one means of violating [18 U.S.C.] § 1343, but it is not the only means for doing so.” Id. at 941. Subsequently, in Sekhar, the Supreme Court applied Scheidler and held that Hobbs Act extortion requires that the extorted property be “obtainable.” 133 S.Ct. at 2726. In Sekhar, the defendant threatened to disclose information about an alleged affair by the New York Comptroller’s general counsel unless the general counsel recommended that the Comptroller invest in the defendant’s investment fund. Id. at 2723. The defendant was convicted of attempted Hobbs Act extortion. Id. Quoting Scheidler, the Court stated that “[o]btaining property requires ‘not only the deprivation but also the acquisition of property.’ ” Id. at 2725 (quoting Scheidler, 537 U.S. at 404, 123 S.Ct. 1057). The Court concluded that “[t]he property extorted must therefore be transferable— that is, capable of passing from one person to another.” Id. Applying this interpretation of the statute, the Court held that the property right at issue — a positive recommendation by the general counsel to invest in the defendant’s fund — was not “obtainable” and therefore vacated the defendant’s extortion conviction. Id. at 2727. Finazzo argues that Sekhar should be extended to the mail and wire fraud statutes to require that defrauded property be obtainable, and that under such an interpretation his mail and wire fraud convictions cannot stand. We reject this argument. 13 Sekhar’s conclusion that Hobbs Act property must be obtainable expressly rested on the fact that Hobbs Act extortion requires “the acquisition of property.” 133 S.Ct. at 2725. Having ruled in Porcelli that, in contrast to the Hobbs Act extortion provision, the mail and wire fraud statutes do not require a defendant to obtain or seek to obtain property, we reject Finazzo’s attempt to extend Sekhar’s obtainability requirement to the mail and wire fraud statutes. 14