Opinion ID: 200991
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Mail-Fraud Conviction

Text: 22 The key elements of the crime of mail fraud, 18 U.S.C. § 1341, are: (1) the devising or attempting to devise a scheme or artifice to defraud; (2) the knowing and willing participation in the scheme with the specific intent to defraud; and (3) the use of the mails in furtherance of the scheme. 5 United States v. Montminy, 936 F.2d 626, 627 (1st Cir.1991) (citation omitted). Given the arguments raised on appeal, our focus is on the third element. 23 The Supreme Court has explained that, while the mailing must be for the purpose of executing the scheme, ... it is not necessary that the scheme contemplate the use of the mails as an essential element. United States v. Maze, 414 U.S. 395, 400, 94 S.Ct. 645, 38 L.Ed.2d 603 (1974) (citations and quotation marks omitted). Nor is it necessary that the mailing itself be fraudulent; an innocent mailing — i.e., one that contains no false information — will satisfy the in-furtherance-of requirement so long as it is incident to an essential part of the scheme or a step in the plot. Schmuck v. United States, 489 U.S. 705, 710-11, 715, 109 S.Ct. 1443, 103 L.Ed.2d 734 (1989) (citations omitted). Moreover, the defendant need not himself mail the letter; [a] mailing need only be closely related to the scheme and reasonably foreseeable as a result of the defendant's actions. United States v. Serino, 835 F.2d 924, 928 (1st Cir.1987) (citation omitted). The relevant question is whether the mailing is part of the execution of the scheme as conceived by the perpetrator at the time, regardless of whether the mailing later, through hindsight, may prove to have been counterproductive and return to haunt the perpetrator of the fraud. Schmuck, 489 U.S. at 715, 109 S.Ct. 1443. 24 McCann argues that the district court erred in denying his motion for a judgment of acquittal on the mail-fraud count because, even when viewed in the light most favorable to the government, [Picknelly's June 21st letter to the Allens] was [mailed] after the scheme had reached fruition and ... therefore ... was not in furtherance of the scheme. 6 Specifically, McCann contends that, because he had already received the proceeds from his double assignment of the mortgage, the evidence was insufficient to establish that the letter served any purpose but to increase the risk of detection. We disagree. 25 When entertaining the Rule 29 motion, Judge Ponsor summarized the government's argument (echoed on appeal) regarding the mailing's purpose: 26 I think [the government's] argument is that the whole David/Picknelly scam, which we'll call it since we're going to have to take the facts at the moment in the light most favorable to the government, was like a house of cards. And the letter to the Allens [from Picknelly's attorney] instructing them to begin making their payments to Mr. Picknelly kept that house of cards from collapsing. 27 It meant that Mr. McCann at this point has got in excess of $300,000, and ... at a cost of [just] over $20,000 a year, he can keep paying [David]. He can keep paying his cat's-paw, Sara Rossman, the money every month and she can keep sending it to [David] and he can stall for a year on that arrangement and, meanwhile, [the Allens would continue to pay Mr. Picknelly] and the house of cards would not collapse unless Mr. Allen ever ran into Mr. David on the street or Mr. David ever had any conversation with Mr. Picknelly about this. 28 But it would keep the house of cards from collapsing if the Allens sent their checks to Picknelly and it would allow [McCann]... to buy time in which he could maybe raise enough money to purport to buy the mortgage back from [David] and essentially erase that aspect of the deal through some other, who knows what, source of funds. 29 That's I think [the government's] argument. That it lulls, it conceals, it maintains. It props up the house of cards for a little while longer and that that's an important part of what he was doing. 30 In a nutshell, then, the government's argument is that Picknelly's June 21st letter served the important purpose of decreasing the risk of detection by causing the Allens' payments to be routed in such a way as to keep the scheme running until such time as McCann could devise a way to fix the David problem and perhaps even avoid detection altogether. 31 Where the evidence supports a finding of such a purpose, the mailing would be within the ambit of the statute. See Schmuck, 489 U.S. at 712, 109 S.Ct. 1443 ([A] mailing that is incident to an essential part of the scheme satisfies the mailing element of the mail fraud offense. (citation and internal quotation marks omitted)); United States v. Lane, 474 U.S. 438, 451-52, 106 S.Ct. 725, 88 L.Ed.2d 814 (1986) (Mailings occurring after receipt of the goods obtained by fraud are within the [mail-fraud] statute if they `were designed to lull the victims into a false sense of security, postpone their ultimate complaint to the authorities, and therefore make the apprehension of the defendant[] less likely than if no mailings had taken place.' (quoting Maze, 414 U.S. at 403, 94 S.Ct. 645)); United States v. Pacheco-Ortiz, 889 F.2d 301, 305 (1st Cir.1989) (post- Schmuck ) ([F]or the mailings to be considered in furtherance of the scheme, the scheme's completion or the prevention of its detection must have depended in some way on the mailings. (citations and internal quotation marks omitted)). 32 Here, having viewed the evidence and all reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the verdict, we conclude that there was sufficient evidentiary support for a finding that Picknelly's mailing served the proffered purpose and thus was incident to an essential part of the scheme. Schmuck, 489 U.S. at 711, 109 S.Ct. 1443. 33 The evidence established that McCann was a clever con artist who ultimately got most of what he wanted by thinking ahead, establishing important relationships, and devising complex and skillful schemes without going overboard. McCann almost certainly knew that, after paying $165,000 for the note, Picknelly (an astute businessman) would be expecting payments from the Allens and would not need a law firm as a go-between. From this evidence, a rational jury could have inferred that McCann intended to take full advantage of the Picknelly situation in order to keep the scheme going strong. Ultimate success meant avoiding detection and Picknelly's reasonably foreseeable letter was a crucial step along that path. By diverting the Allens' payments from Winniman & Winniman to Picknelly, the letter protected McCann from a much-more-risky alternative whereby, month after month, Winniman & Winniman would receive two separate claims for a single Allens' check. While the evidence suggests that Rossman might not have been perplexed by this alternative situation, it also supports a finding that others at the firm might have taken note. 7 In any event, with the Allens-Picknelly dealings completely removed from Winniman & Winniman oversight, the only remaining problem would be David — and that problem easily could be satisfied by small monthly payments from Rossman to David (through McCann's recently padded trust account) until the McCann-to-David assignment could be erased altogether. Indeed, the evidence points to two documents sent to David after the Picknelly assignment — the July 7th check from Rossman and the undated letter from McCann received in mid-July — that validate this theory and, together with the other evidence, provide a supportable basis for concluding that Picknelly's June 21st letter was an integral part of the ongoing scheme.