Opinion ID: 799033
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Interstate wire communications in furtherance of the scheme

Text: Gallion next argues that even if the evidence were sufficient to support a finding of intent to defraud, it was insufficient to support the conclusion that he used interstate wire communications in furtherance of the alleged scheme. In making this argument, Gallion concedes that he and Cunningham engaged in interstate wire communications when they accepted director fees from the Fund. But he disputes that these communications were made in furtherance of the scheme. Gallion's argument rests on an overly narrow definition of the scheme to defraud that was alleged in this case. According to Gallion, the wire transfers occurred after the fraud was complete because, by that time, the clients had already been deprived of their money. But the fraudulent scheme as alleged by the government was not simply that the lawyers intended to deprive their clients of money; it was that the lawyers intended to deprive their clients of money and then retain that money for themselves. Defined in this manner, the scheme clearly encompassed the wire transfers of settlement funds from the escrow account to the defendants' personal bank accounts, some of which were located outside Kentucky. Similarly, the scheme included the wire transfers of director fees, which were taken from funds rightfully belonging to the clients, to the defendants' bank accounts. See United States v. Warshak, 631 F.3d 266, 311 (6th Cir.2010) (noting in the analogous context of mail fraud that the requirement of mailing in furtherance of the scheme is fairly expansive and includes mailings that are incident to an essential part of the scheme, or a step in the plot (internal quotation marks omitted)). The evidence supporting this element was therefore sufficient to sustain Gallion's wire-fraud convictions.