Opinion ID: 668585
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Bryan Huff and Pamela Faught

Text: 13 Huff and Faught contend that the evidence supporting elements essential to their conspiracy and travel fraud convictions was insufficient. Their burden is to demonstrate that even when viewed in a light most favorable to the government, the evidence is such that no rational trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty. United States v. Campbell, 985 F.2d 341, 344 (7th Cir.1993). 14 Huff and Faught first challenge the evidentiary support for their conspiracy convictions. A conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit a criminal act. To establish that the defendant was a participant in the conspiracy, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knew of the conspiracy and that the defendant intended to join and further the conspiracy's aims. Id. at 345. Huff and Faught contend that the government failed to prove this element beyond a reasonable doubt. The record demonstrates otherwise. 15 As a preliminary matter, evidence pertaining to the general nature of the fraud supports the jury's conclusion. Ellis testified that for the venture to work, it was imperative that salespersons, singers, and locators, Huff and Faught included, be aware of precisely what was going on, so that at each stage of the sale, their statements were consistent. For the venture to be successful, no participant could be ignorant. 16 Evidence against Huff and Faught individually reinforces this conclusion. Several witnesses testified that Huff led them to believe that he was an independent distributor who had done very well financially from his Hiawatha purchase. Yet as Michael Ellis testified, although Hiawatha held him out as such, Huff was never an independent owner and operator of Hiawatha equipment. He was given a few machines and instructed as all Hiawatha singers were instructed: to promote the profitability of the Hiawatha machines. 17 Faught argues that her promotional efforts are insufficient to tie her to the conspiracy because they were not misrepresentations but rather fall within the rubric of permissible puffery. The evidence directly rebuts her claim. Hiawatha distributors testified that in her capacity as a locator, Faught made representations to storeowners which were patently false. She told storeowners about the fictitious Lloyd's of London insurance policy even though Hiawatha had never even approached Lloyd's about this. Additionally, Faught's estimates concerning the profitability of the machines were so inflated that they go beyond puffery. She told storeowners to expect a minimum of $30 per week per machine. In reality, the machines averaged $3 per week per machine. Viewed in a light most favorable to the government, the foregoing evidence strongly suggests that Huff and Faught were fully aware of the venture and their own role in it. 18 Both Huff and Faught make sufficiency challenges to the evidence supporting their travel fraud convictions under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2314. 1 They claim that the government failed to present evidence which demonstrated that they caused anyone to travel in interstate commerce in furtherance of a fraudulent scheme. Their claim is based on a misunderstanding of the law. It is not the defendant who must induce a person to travel but rather the fraudulent scheme itself. See United States v. Wiehoff, 748 F.2d 1158, 1161 (7th Cir.1984); United States v. Benson, 548 F.2d 42, 46 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 939, 97 S.Ct. 2652, 53 L.Ed.2d 257 (1977). In fact, it is not even necessary for the defendant to have personal contact with the defrauded party. United States v. Biggs, 761 F.2d 184 (4th Cir.1985). If the defendant is a knowing and active participant in the scheme and the scheme induces a victim to travel across state lines, the defendant can be convicted. Wiehoff, 748 F.2d at 1161. 19 Due to its factual similarity, Wiehoff is particularly relevant. The scheme in that case involved the fraudulent selling of pizza distributorships. The principals would refer potential investors to a cohort named Wakefield. Wakefield would then make misleading statements promoting the profitability of owning a pizza distributorship. Based on evidence that Wakefield was given his distributorship for free and evidence that he was overstating its value, we held that the jury could have properly found that he was falsely posing as an independent distributor in an effort to further the scheme, and we upheld his convictions for mail and travel fraud. Our conclusion turned on the fact that the scheme itself caused interstate travel. Since it is undisputed that Hiawatha's scheme caused many prospective distributors to travel across state lines and spend in excess of $5,000, as in Wiehoff, we uphold Faught and Huff's convictions.