Opinion ID: 739316
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Count Two: Mail Fraud (Myers and Shanklin)

Text: 61 Count Two is based in part on evidence that appellants submitted false production reports, shut-in affidavits, and morning field reports. Appellants contend that even if these documents were false, they could not have been fraudulent because they were not false with respect to material matters. They rely on the Supreme Court's observation that to be material, a statement must tend naturally to influence, or [be] capable of influencing, the decision of the decisionmaking body to which it is addressed. United States v. Gaudin, 515 U.S. 506, ----, 115 S.Ct. 2310, 2313, 132 L.Ed.2d 444 (1995) (internal citation and quotation marks omitted). 62 Assuming that materiality is an element of the mail fraud charged, it was satisfied in this case. It is self-evident that documents falsely informing the GLO that tract 350 had produced oil, or had been reworked at timely intervals, would tend to influence the GLO's decision regarding the status of the lease. 63 Appellants insist that their statements were immaterial because the amount of oil production falsely claimed was inadequate to maintain the lease. In essence, they claim that their lies were not big enough. They also claim that the lease had lapsed before the false documents were submitted. These arguments are belied by the GLO letter itself; the jury could have rationally concluded that appellants' false statements influenced, or had a natural tendency to influence, the GLO's determination that the lease had been maintained.
64 Myers and Shanklin claim that the evidence was insufficient to prove that either of them caused a mailing in furtherance of a scheme to defraud. A defendant causes the mails to be used if he does an act with knowledge that the use of the mails will follow in the ordinary course of business, or where such use can reasonably be foreseen, even though not actually intended.... Sneed, 63 F.3d at 385 n. 4 (quoting Pereira v. United States, 347 U.S. 1, 8-9, 74 S.Ct. 358, 363, 98 L.Ed. 435 (1954)). 65 We find that the jury could rationally have concluded that Myers was the driving force behind the effort to retain the lease on tract 350; that he submitted a false affidavit to the GLO in a plot to obtain written confirmation that the lease was still good; and that Shanklin prepared false field reports to support Myers' affidavits. It is reasonable to infer that the GLO would not have mailed the confirmation letter of September 19, 1989, but for appellants' submission of these false documents. The GLO mailing was reasonably foreseeable; indeed, it was a desired result of appellants' efforts.