Opinion ID: 196657
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Wire Fraud: Scheme to Defraud of Honest Services

Text: 42 A third substantive offense, related to the bribing of the police chief, was that defendants devised a scheme to defraud the residents of the Passamaquoddy Reservation at Pleasant Point of the honest services of their police chief and knowingly caused the wires to be used in interstate commerce in furtherance of the scheme, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1343 and 1346. 17 Defendant Lazore asserts, without development, that the district court should have issued a judgment of acquittal on these counts in deference to tribal sovereignty. The government responds that tribes are, in any event, subordinate to the federal government. While neither side spells out the dispute, we understand it to be principally a jurisdictional one, namely, that the federal government lacks authority to prosecute defendants on a matter involving internal relations of the Passamaquoddy Tribe. 43 The Supreme Court has stated that while Indian tribes are  'unique aggregations possessing attributes of sovereignty over both their members and their territory,'  [t]heir incorporation within the territory of the United States, and their acceptance of its protection, necessarily divested them of some aspects of the sovereignty which they have previously exercised. United States v. Wheeler, 435 U.S. 313, 323, 98 S.Ct. 1079, 1086, 55 L.Ed.2d 303 (1978) (quoting United States v. Mazurie, 419 U.S. 544, 557, 95 S.Ct. 710, 717, 42 L.Ed.2d 706 (1975)). The tribes generally retain the right to self-government, id. at 322, 98 S.Ct. at 1085-1086, but are nonetheless subject to federal criminal jurisdiction of both a specified and more general nature. See generally United States v. Markiewicz, 978 F.2d 786, 797-802 (2d Cir.1992) (discussing federal criminal jurisdiction over offenses committed by or against an Indian or on Indian territory, as well as over peculiarly Federal offenses), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 1086, 113 S.Ct. 1065, 122 L.Ed.2d 369 (1993). 44 The statutory violations charged under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1343 and 1346 are not specific to Native Americans, but rather are of general applicability. Cf. Wheeler, 435 U.S. at 330 n. 30, 98 S.Ct. at 1090 n. 30 (Federal jurisdiction also extends to ... crimes over which there is federal jurisdiction regardless of whether an Indian is involved, such as assaulting a federal officer, 18 U.S.C. § 111 (1976 ed.).). The latter crimes may involve an independent federal interest to be protected, id. at 331 n. 32, 98 S.Ct. at 1090 n. 32, though it is unclear that one is required. Compare Markiewicz, 978 F.2d at 800, with United States v. Begay, 42 F.3d 486, 500 (9th Cir.1994) (a Native American may be charged under a federal criminal statute of general applicability even absent a peculiarly federal interest, if charge is unaffected by federal enclave law and Native Americans have not been excluded from the statute's application), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 93, 133 L.Ed.2d 49 (1995). Wire fraud appears to belong to this category of general offenses that apply equally to Native Americans; even if an independent federal interest is required to support this application of the statute, the interest is to prevent use of the wires in interstate or foreign commerce in furtherance of a scheme to defraud. Cf. H.R.Rep. No. 94-1038, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 3 (1976), reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. 1125, 1127 (noting in legislative history of the Indian Major Crimes Act [18 U.S.C. § 1153], which prescribes federal jurisdiction over 13 specified offenses, that federal criminal jurisdiction also extends to crimes that are peculiarly Federal.... such as assaulting a federal officer ... or defrauding the United States); see also United States v. Funmaker, 10 F.3d 1327, 1331 (7th Cir.1993) (18 U.S.C. § 844(i), punishing one who destroys by fire property used in or affecting interstate commerce, extends to a Native American who set fire to tribe-owned gambling hall); United States v. Finn, 919 F.Supp. 1305, 1330-1337 (D.Minn.1995) (denying motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction an indictment charging officers of tribal corporation with mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1346 and other offenses). 45 As discussed earlier, the United States has an interest in preventing use of the wires in interstate commerce to further a scheme to defraud, including one to deprive another of the intangible right to honest services under section 1346. Defendant has not shown, and we do not discern, how the application of sections 1343 and 1346 in this case would interfere with any Native American right protected by statute or treaty, or right integral to self-government. 18 Cf. Funmaker, 10 F.3d at 1332 (The decision-making power of Indian tribes ends ... at the point when those decisions would violate federal law designed to safeguard important federal interests such as the free flow of interstate commerce.). The convictions for violations of section 1346, in conjunction with section 1343, are affirmed.