Court Opinion

ID: 9466261
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:09:57.814494+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:37.888880
License: Public Domain

ROBB, Circuit Judge,
dissenting in part:
In my opinion there was sufficient evidence to show that the mailings of the conditional sales contracts to the lenders were in furtherance of the scheme to defraud. Accordingly I would affirm the conviction of Alston on counts 22 through 26. I concur in the other holdings in the court’s opinion.1
The purchaser of an automobile was required to apply for credit from a lender and to be approved before a dealer would agree to a conditional sales contract. When the lender gave oral approval of the loan application a contract was sent through the mails which provided for assignment of the dealer’s rights and warranted that the purchaser’s representations in the credit application were true. Receipt of the written contract through the mails was a regular, contemplated and necessary step in the consummation of the loan transaction. These facts were sufficient to demonstrate that the mailings were in furtherance of the scheme to defraud, within the meaning of the statute.
The purpose of the scheme to defraud was to obtain credit and use of an automobile over the loan period. If any of the representations in the contract with respect to the purchaser’s financial history thereafter proved to be false the lender was free to rescind the loan and demand immediate payment. In short, mailing of the written contracts was an essential step in the execution of the scheme to defraud. See United States v. Marando, 504 F.2d 126, 129 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1000, 95 S.Ct. 317, 42 L.Ed.2d 275 (1974); United States v. Owen, 492 F.2d 1100, 1103 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 965, 95 S.Ct. 227, 42 L.Ed.2d 180 (1974); United States v. Eskow, 422 F.2d 1060 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 398 U.S. 959, 90 S.Ct. 2174, 26 L.Ed.2d 544 (1970).
Furthermore in my opinion the mailing of the written contracts promoted concealment of the fraud and therefore was within the condemnation of the statute. United States v. Sampson, 371 U.S. 75, 83 S.Ct. 173, 9 L.Ed.2d 136 (1962); United States v. Pollack, 175 U.S.App.D.C. 227, 534 F.2d 964 (1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 924, 97 S.Ct. 324, 50 L.Ed.2d 292 (1977); United States v. Eskow, supra, 422 F.2d at 1069.

. I do not subscribe to the dicta in n.31.