Opinion ID: 746455
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Potter

Text: 43 Potter worked at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) of NASA in Huntsville, Alabama for more than twenty-five years. In 1987, she became a manager in the MSFC Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program, which sought to identify opportunities in NASA in which small companies and minority firms could participate. Although her bachelor's degree was in business management, she entered a master's degree program at UTSI in engineering science under Frost in 1988. 44 After Potter had informed Frost that she was having difficulty deciding upon a topic for her thesis, he had Turner deliver to Potter a FWG report on a cancelled project concerning a tower and wind study. Either Frost or Turner then gave a diskette containing a copy of the report to Craddock, Frost's secretary at FWG, who then spent about two days retyping it into a more presentable format. Evidence at trial indicated that Potter's thesis and the tower and wind study report were ninety-five percent identical. 45 Before orally defending her thesis before a committee, Potter studied the document which she was submitting in order to be able to express a degree of understanding during her defense. The committee consisted of Frost, Turner, and a Dr. Kenneth Kimble. Although Potter told the committee that she had used material from a report given to her, she presented the thesis as her own work. After the University approved her thesis, Potter graduated in December, 1989. Although Potter admitted at trial that she neither wrote her thesis nor did any research, she claimed that Frost had led her to believe that she could satisfy her degree requirements merely by studying, checking, and finalizing the report. 46 In early 1990, Potter retained control over about $55,000 of an original grant of $110,000 in government funds for an SBIR workshop project. Potter claims that she had difficulty finding individuals or firms willing to perform any workshops for only $55,000, and that, under NASA rules, any funds which had not been committed by September, 1990 would expire and no longer be available to NASA. Accordingly, Potter asserts that she was interested when Frost approached her after she had graduated and informed her that FWG was interested in submitting a proposal to perform such workshops for as little as $50,000. Due to procedural difficulties with obtaining or accessing government funds, however, Potter decided to accept a suggestion made by either Frost or Turner: merely attempt to transfer the $55,000 in remaining funds to the winds measurement contract, an existing contract between FWG and NASA, in order to avoid the unwanted process of lengthy negotiations over a new contract, as well as termination of the funds before approval of the workshop proposal submitted by FWG. Kelly Hill, who had been a defendant in these prosecutions but who died before trial, was the COTR for the winds measurement contract. 47 On April 18, 1990, Potter submitted a procurement request designed to transfer the $55,000 in SBIR funds to the winds measurement contract. On May 9, 1990, Hill submitted a technical evaluation which approved of the proposed addition of funds. The evaluation indicated that the funds were targeted for workshops, and that the initial date of the procurement process had been January 2, 1990. Potter's superiors in the SBIR program never approved the proposal by FWG to perform the workshops, and the added $55,000 was withdrawn from the winds measurement contract. 48 The prosecution alleges that Potter committed mail fraud by helping to increase the value of the winds measurement contract by $55,000 in return for her thesis. The prosecution apparently claims that the effort to transfer the funds was a fraudulent scheme because the documentation submitted by Hill in May, 1990 deceptively implied that the additional funding was related specifically to the research being performed under the contract (which would have been a proper contract modification), rather than to a business program (which was an improper modification). 49 The mailings upon which these convictions are based are vouchers for the winds measurement contract mailed from FWG to the government on January 15, February 13, March 15, and April 12, 1990 for work done on the original contract. Potter claims that these vouchers cannot support her convictions because they were unrelated to, and therefore did not further, the fraudulent scheme charged. Even assuming that the jury could infer that Potter intended to defraud the government on the basis of the documentation submitted by Hill, we agree with her that these vouchers were unrelated to the scheme at issue. 50 The prosecution argues that the vouchers may support the convictions of Potter because 1) the object of the scheme at issue was to enrich Frost and Turner through government contract money; 2) money received as a result of the vouchers at issue did enrich Frost and Turner; 3) therefore, these vouchers furthered the scheme. This argument, however, cannot withstand scrutiny. 51 The federal mail fraud statute does not purport to reach all frauds, but only those limited instances in which the use of the mails is a part of the execution of the fraud.... United States v. Altman, 48 F.3d 96, 102 (2d Cir.1995)(quoting Kann v. United States, 323 U.S. 88, 95, 65 S.Ct. 148, 151, 89 L.Ed. 88 (1944)). The mails therefore must serve the purpose of executing or furthering the accomplishment of the scheme. See United States v. Koen, 982 F.2d 1101, 1107 (7th Cir.1992); see also United States v. Downs, 870 F.2d 613, 615 (11th Cir.1989)(completion of scheme must depend in some way upon mailing); United States v. Wellman, 830 F.2d 1453, 1461 n. 11 (7th Cir.1987)(success of scheme must be linked causally to mailings). Although the use of the mails does not have to be an essential part of the scheme, it does have to be incident to an essential part of the scheme. See Altman, 48 F.3d at 102; see also Oldfield, 859 F.2d at 400 (mailing must be closely related to the scheme). 52 In this case, the vouchers relied upon by the prosecution charged only for work performed by FWG up until March, 1990 on the unmodified winds measurement contract. The jury, however, did not convict Potter of fraudulently procuring the unmodified winds measurement contract; Potter had no role in procuring the original winds measurement contract. Regardless of whether Hill or Potter initiated the attempted modification of the contract in January or April, 1990, the vouchers have no relationship to the $55,000 associated with the SBIR program or to the modification, and therefore no relationship to the specific scheme of which Potter was convicted. Although the prosecution argues that because defendants selected [the winds measurement] contract as the vehicle to get Frost the $55,000, mailings furthering this contract were necessary to the scheme, the winds measurement contract would continue to exist, and therefore remain a viable vehicle for future fraud, regardless of whether FWG had sent the vouchers. Although the vouchers did allow FWG to receive payments for work already done under the original contract, the payments had nothing to do with extending the contract. They simply did not advance the accomplishment of any scheme to increase the value of the contract. Accordingly, there is insufficient evidence for the convictions of Potter of Counts Nine through Twelve. Because Frost's and Turner's convictions of these counts depend upon the same mailings, they also must be vacated.