Opinion ID: 727292
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Count Four Conviction: 100 Percent of Advertising Costs Were Reimbursed

Text: 73 Calhoon argues that the conviction on count four must be reversed because the outreach costs claimed were actually reimbursed. But the fact of reimbursement affects neither the falsity nor the materiality of the statement in the cost report claiming advertising costs as outreach. 74 A document is false when made or used, if it is untrue and is then known to be untrue by the person making or using it. Eleventh Circuit Pattern Jury Instructions, Criminal Cases, Offense Instruction 29 (1985); see United States v. Anderson, 579 F.2d 455 (8th Cir.1987). What made the claim for outreach false was that it concealed a material fact--the nature of the costs as advertising costs, which may or may not have been reimbursable. Calhoon, therefore, made a false statement the moment outreach was claimed in the cost report and supported by a general ledger reflecting the same. That the costs were ultimately reimbursed does not make the statement true when made. 75 As to materiality, section 1001 does not require proof that the statement actually misled the government; the false statement need only have the capacity to impair or pervert the functioning of a government agency. Diaz, 690 F.2d at 1357 (citing Lichenstein, 610 F.2d at 1278).