Opinion ID: 522939
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Interstate Travel to Conceal Fraud

Text: 18 O'Connor advances three challenges to his convictions under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2314. First, he argues, similarly to his challenge to his wire fraud convictions, that the travel inducements were not in furtherance of any fraudulent scheme because they occurred after he had received the merchandise, and thus after the scheme had reached fruition. Next, O'Connor contends that the person who traveled (Barter) was not a victim of any fraud--it was TME, O'Connor says, who was defrauded--and that Sec. 2314 requires a showing that a victim of the fraud was the person induced to travel. Finally, O'Connor asserts that a corporation, such as TME, is not a person within the meaning of Sec. 2314. These too are meritless. Section 2314 provides in part: 19 [w]hoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transports or causes to be transported, or induces any person to travel in, or to be transported in interstate commerce in the execution or concealment of a scheme or artifice to defraud that person of money or property having a value of $5,000 or more[ ] 20