Opinion ID: 751158
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The loan was an extension of credit.

Text: 12 Title 18 U.S.C. § 894(a)(1), under which Tubiolo was convicted, prohibits knowing participation in the use of any extortionate means (1) to collect or attempt to collect any extension of credit. The statute defines the phrase to extend credit as follows: to make or renew any loan, or to enter into any agreement, tacit or express, whereby the repayment or satisfaction of any debt or claim ... may or will be deferred. 18 U.S.C. § 891(1). 13 The loan from Kalogirou to Ross was clearly an extension of credit. There is no dispute that Kalogirou made a loan to Ross. Under the statute's unambiguous definition, an extension of credit includes any loan or any agreement to defer repayment of a debt. In the instant case, there need not have been an agreement to defer repayment of the debt, as Tubiolo argues, because there was clearly a loan. Accordingly, the cases cited by Tubiolo in support of his position are inapposite because neither case involved an actual loan. See United States v. Boulahanis, 677 F.2d 586, 587 (7th Cir.1982) (involving extortion of protection payments); United States v. Wallace, 59 F.3d 333, 335 (2d Cir.1995) (involving distribution of proceeds from stolen checks). 14 Tubiolo also argues that there was no extension of credit under the statute's definition, because he had not transacted directly with Ross--i.e., because Kalogirou had loaned Ross the money. This argument is also contradicted by the express language of the statute, which prohibits using extortionate means to collect any extension of credit. See 18 U.S.C. § 894(a)(1) (emphasis added). In view of the fact that Congress intended for the statute to be used  'with vigor and imagination,'  United States v. Stauffer, 922 F.2d 508, 512 (9th Cir.1990) (quoting legislative history), it makes little sense to limit its scope as Tubiolo proposes. As the district court observed, It's hard to believe that Congress passed a statute that would apply only to a person loaning the money and not to the people actually directing the threat. 15