Opinion ID: 170647
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Wrongful Conduct

Text: First, Mr. Vigil argues that his conduct was not wrongful as defined by the Hobbs Act but merely hard bargaining or political patronage. The Supreme Court defined the meaning of wrongful as used in the Hobbs Act: `[W]rongful' has meaning in the Act only if it limits the statute's coverage to those instances where the obtaining of the property would itself be `wrongful' because the alleged extortionist has no lawful claim to that property. United States v. Enmons, 410 U.S. 396, 400, 93 S.Ct. 1007, 35 L.Ed.2d 379 (1973). Mr. Vigil argues that his conduct was simply hard bargaining and that he was within his rights to require that someone else perform the computer monitoring and reporting. Mr. Vigil is correct that hard bargaining is not wrongful under the Hobbs Act, but his characterization of the facts is far too narrow given our standard of review. Mr. Vigil demanded that Mr. Everage hire a specific individual, Ms. Sais, to fill the role despite Mr. Everage's conclusion that Ms. Sais's skills were not needed. Mr. Vigil insisted that Mr. Everage pay her the salary she demanded, 40% of his gross income from the contract, leading Mr. Everage to believe it was a condition to receiving the contract. A rational jury could certainly conclude that Mr. Vigil's conduct was not mere hard bargaining but the exploitation of the fear of economic loss in order to obtain property to which the exploiter is not entitled. Brokerage Concepts, Inc. v. U.S. Healthcare, Inc., 140 F.3d 494, 523-24 (3d Cir.1998). Mr. Vigil was entitled to evaluate proposals for adequacy on behalf of the state, [1] but he was not entitled to direct the disposition of the income from the contract or specify who was to be hired to perform it. See United States v. Gotti, 459 F.3d 296, 327 (2d Cir. 2006) (recognizing the intangible property rights to make business decisions free of outside pressure and to decide with whom to work). The district court was entirely correct that the jury was free to reject Mr. Vigil's hard bargaining theory and conclude that Mr. Vigil was not concerned with negotiating a lower fee to benefit the state but to shift a portion of the income the contract would generate to Ms. Sais. See Vigil, 478 F.Supp.2d at 1306. Mr. Vigil also argues that Mr. Everage was not entitled to any commissions because many steps needed completing before any commissions would be generated such as selecting securities lending agents on agreeable terms and regulatory approval. This argument ignores the fact that Mr. Vigil was charged with attempted extortion, so the government must only prove a substantial step towards commission of the crime and not the completed offense. In addition, the evidence shows that Mr. Vigil expected Mr. Everage to earn income from the contract and that Mr. Everage would pay Ms. Sais a portion of that income  so even though the contract was not fully executed, all the parties involved acted on the assumption that the contract would generate income. Finally, Mr. Vigil argues that even if he had political motivations to provide income to Ms. Sais under the contract, political considerations do not make his actions extortionate. Mr. Vigil relies on United States v. Thompson, where a state procurement official was acquitted of mail fraud and bribery when she violated administrative rules in steering a travel contract to a low bidder (and campaign contributor to the governor) even though other members of the working group rated a rival company more favorably. 484 F.3d 877, 878-79 (7th Cir.2007). Thompson reasoned that it is preposterous that state or local officials violate federal law when they take account of political considerations in spending public money. Id. at 883. Ms. Thompson was acquitted because the court concluded that she had not misused her office for private gain when the only evidence of gain was a later raise of $1,000, approved through above-board channels. See id. This case is distinguishable because the government offered evidence that Mr. Vigil misused his office for private gain. Mr. Vigil was not merely taking account of political considerations in awarding a contract, but conditioning the award of the contract on the hiring of a specified individual at the price she named to payoff a personal political debt.