Opinion ID: 766939
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Reddie Point

Text: 45 Counts 78 to 84 charged Neder with committing wire fraud through a scheme in which he submitted false invoices to support draw requests on a loan he had obtained from the Union for construction at Reddie Point. Through these invoices and draw requests, Neder falsely represented that he had paid for work performed at Reddie Point when, in reality, he had not paid for the work or the work was not actually performed at Reddie Point. 46 As part of his defense to these charges, Neder testified that the Union's representatives, Adler and Burns, had authorized and encouraged Neder to make false construction draw requests and knew that Neder was submitting false invoices to support hism false draw requests. Adler and Burns testified to the contrary. According to Neder, this conflicting testimony raises a credibility issue relating to materiality that should have been resolved by the jury. Neder reasons that if the jury believed his testimony that Adler and Burns knew Neder's representations were false and still disbursed the funds Neder requested, the jury rationally could have found that Neder's representations did not actually influence the Union's decision about whether to pay the draw requests. 47 However, as the Government correctly responds, Neder's arguments relate to his intent in submitting the false draw requests and the Union's knowledge of the falsity of those requests but not to the materiality of Neder's false representations about his expenditures and the work completed at Reddie Point. As discussed previously, false statements can be material even if a decision maker was not actually influenced by those statements and knew they were false. See Johnson, 139 F.3d at 1364. Again, what is relevant to the materiality inquiry is whether Neder's representations have a natural tendency to influence, or [are] capable of influencing, the decision of the decisionmaking body to which [they are] addressed-here, the Union's decision to pay Neder's draw requests. See Gaudin, 515 U.S. at 509, 115 S.Ct. at 2313. 48 The evidence established that, under the loan agreement, the Union agreed to reimburse Neder only for work actually performed at Reddie Point, not for future work at Reddie Point or for work performed at other projects. Consequently, Neder's representations in the draw requests about the amounts he had expended for work performed at Reddie Point were capable of influencing the Union's decision about whether to pay Neder's draw requests and, if so, how much money should be disbursed to Neder. Because this evidence overwhelmingly indicates the materiality of Neder's representations, it is clear beyond a reasonable doubt that the jury verdict on these counts would have been the same absent the district court's instructional error. Thus, the instructional error was harmless.