Opinion ID: 622342
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Adequately Pled Allegations

Text: The district court found that the complaint sufficiently alleged four predicate acts of mail or wire fraud: the Casassas' claim of fraudulent representations made about the availability of a pair of twins (January 2006), and the Flennikens' (January 2006), Saenzs' (February 2006), and Wrights' (January 2006) [1] claims of fraudulent inducement of the payment of foster care expenses. Heinrich, 2009 WL 3401171 at , . We agree that these four claims do adequately allege predicate acts of mail or wire fraud as they have adequately alleged a scheme to defraud, the use of the mail or wires in furtherance of the scheme, and a sufficient factual basis from which to infer scienter. See Jamieson, 427 F.3d at 402; DeSantis, 134 F.3d at 764; Cardinale, 567 F.3d at 13. The district court discussed and ultimately rejected many other claims of mail and wire fraud in its opinion, including claims by the Heinriches, Flennikens, Tavolillas, Lundys, Wrights, and Saenzs of promissory fraud involving representations concerning the defendants' timeliness and ability to complete adoptions and claims based on the alleged misrepresentation of Waiting Angels's nonprofit status. The rejection of these claims was proper, since the plaintiffs have not alleged sufficient information to render their claims of fraud plausible, as opposed to merely possible. Iqbal, 129 S.Ct. at 1950. As discussed above, the plaintiffs have not adequately alleged any additional predicate acts of mail or wire fraud or of extortion. Accordingly, the plaintiffs have adequately alleged four predicate acts of racketeering activity, spanning a two-month period from January 2006 through February 2006. The question then arises whether these four acts, if proven, would be sufficient to establish a pattern of racketeering activity.