Court Opinion

ID: 9469374
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:38:48.807215+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:21.468950
License: Public Domain

GARWOOD, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the reversal and remand. I likewise concur in the holdings that there is sufficient evidence that Curry violated 18 U.S.C. § 1341 by mailing false documents to the Louisiana election Supervisory Committee [the Committee] in an effort to conceal his scheme to defraud P.E.O.P.L.E. of its funds, that in order to convict it was necessary to find the documents were false and Curry knew it, that the trial court erred by denying Curry's request for an instruction on the defense of “good faith,” and that Curry’s contentions referenced in note 7 of the majority opinion are without merit. Further, I join in, and agree with, all portions of the majority opinion which concern the above holdings.
I write separately solely to express my disagreement with the holding in the majority opinion that Curry would have violated 18 U.S.C. § 1341 by mailing the statements he knew to be false to the Committee, even in the absence of any proof that Curry, P.E.O.P.L.E. or anyone else was guilty of any independent actual or attempted wrongdoing which might be furthered or concealed by such falsity, merely because the false reports deprived the Committee of the true information.
As I understand it, there is no contention that either P.E.O.P.L.E. or any of the “contributing” candidates violated any law or defrauded anyone. Yet the majority holds that even if Curry had been guilty of no wrongdoing respecting P.E.O.P.L.E., he nevertheless would have violated section 1341 by mailing to the Committee reports he knew to be false. This holding is made despite the fact that in such situation the false reports would not have been intended or calculated to cause either (i) the Committee (or any part of the Louisiana government) to act differently than it would have if true reports had been filed or to be deprived of any thing or benefit whatever, other than simply the economically worthless information, or (ii) any other party, including Curry, to either receive or be deprived of any tangible thing or any actual or potential economic benefit.
I am aware of no decisions of the Supreme Court or of this Court which have extended section 1341 to situations where the scheme did not contemplate the perpetrator’s acquisition or the victim’s deprivation of either something tangible or some actual or potential economic benefit.1 Decisions in other circuits have, however, ex*419tended the reach of section 1341 in this regard farther than any decisions of the Supreme Court or of this Court. Nearly all of these decisions are reviewed in the opinion in United States v. McNeive, 536 F.2d 1245 (8th Cir. 1976), where the Court de-dined to extend them or to give full reach to the expansive language found in several, As the McNeive opinion reflects, these cases generally involve corruption of public officials. In virtually all of them there was actually or potentially either an economic loss to the government2 or an economic gain to the defendant.3 In any event, in all these cases where public officials and employees are corrupted, the government is *420deprived of something of actual or potential economic worth, namely, the services of the official or employee whose compensation, office and expenses are paid for by the government.
One case which does not fit the foregoing pattern is United States v. States, 488 F.2d 761 (8th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 417 U.S. 909, 94 S.Ct. 2605, 41 L.Ed.2d 212 (1974). In States, while there was apparently no corruption of governmental officials or employees, the scheme involved the use of false voter registration affidavits to procure “absentee ballots for the fictitious persons” “for the purpose of securing . . . said political offices . .. and financial benefits of said offices.” 488 F.2d at 762-63. A purpose of “financial” gain was charged in States, albeit a rather remote one. Moreover, it was plainly alleged that the immediate purpose of the scheme was to obtain from the government, and for the defendants, specific, tangible items which the government would not have parted with but for the fraud, namely, the absentee ballots for the fictitous persons. States therefore involves deprivation of some tangible items.
But it is unnecessary for purposes of this opinion to determine whether cases such as Isaacs, Mandel and States may properly be viewed as consistent with limiting section 1341 to instances where the scheme contemplates the perpetrator’s acquisition or the victim’s deprivation of either some tangible thing or some actual or potential economic benefit. Nor is it necessary for these purposes to determine whether these cases should be followed by this Court.4 Regardless of how intangible and noneconomic the consequences of a scheme to defraud may be for purposes of section 1341, no case has held that the mere denial to the victim of accurate information, which is necessarily implicit in any false or deceitful statement, is of itself sufficient to render the knowingly making of a false statement a defrauding. There must be contemplated some significant detriment to the victim, or benefit to the perpetrator, apart from the deception itself. Thus, in United States v. Regent Office Supply Co., 421 F.2d 1174 (2d Cir. 1970), the making by defendant’s salesmen of knowingly false representations to customers of having been referred by a mutual friend or that the goods were those of a recently deceased friend of the salesman and had to be disposed of because of his death was held not to be a scheme to defraud within section 1341. Though by these knowingly false representations defendant deceived the customers and “secured sales,” there was no scheme to “defraud” because the representations were not calculated or intended to affect the customers’ understanding of either the bargain or the value of the goods.5 But, of course, the customers were deprived of correct information as *421to the source of the goods and the occasion for the salesman’s call, and they took some action on this misinformation, that is, they took the time to listen to the salesman and evaluate the merchandise, rather than simply refusing to even consider a purchase. However, this was not sufficient to invoke section 1341.
If some such limitation is not placed on section 1341 it will reach virtually every knowing misrepresentation mailed with the intent to deceive. But, as Regent Office Supply Co. reflects, not every intent to deceive is an intent to defraud. To the same effect is the recent decision of this Court in United States v. Ballard, 663 F.2d 534, modified on rehearing, 680 F.2d 352 (5th Cir. 1982), which contains a thorough review of the authorities, generally in line with that in the McNeive opinion referenced above.
Let us suppose that the Louisiana election law required that the candidates file, within thirty days after the general election, a contributions report covering contributions received during the last two weeks of the campaign. An issue has developed during the campaign as to whether a given candidate is supported by a particular controversial figure. Thirteen days before the election this figure makes a significant, though perfectly legal, contribution to the candidate. There is, in fact, nothing either improper or illegal in the relationship between the candidate and contributor. A local newspaper covering the campaign then “invites” all candidates to submit to it, five days before the election, a report of contributions (following the format of the required state reports) current to ten days before the election. Such “reports” will be published in the paper, along with additional comments, and candidates who fail to provide the information will be vociferously denounced. Knowing that the paper suspects the contribution and will denounce him either if he refuses its invitation to “report” or if his “report” discloses the contribution, the candidate, intending to de-eeive the paper, mails on the seventh day before the election a purportedly complete report which knowingly omits the contribution in question. Prior to the election, the paper publishes the report and endorses the candidate, noting the absence of any contribution from the controversial figure. Many citizens are accordingly influenced to vote for the candidate. Has the candidate violated section 1341? I think not.
Of course, here the election contributions report is a legally required filing with an official body. But that, it seems to me, is indeed a slender basis for distinction. See United States v. Cohn, 270 U.S. 339, 46 S.Ct. 251, 70 L.Ed. 616 (1926). There is no basis in the wording of section 1341 to distinguish between situations where the government (or one of its agencies) is the “victim” and where the “victim” is an individual or nongovernmental entity. Certainly, the “integrity” of the electoral process and the public’s “right to know” is at least as meaningfully infringed by the pre-election mailing to the newspaper as by a post-election official filing with the same misinformation. The Louisiana statute does not denounce filing false reports as defrauding, and under Louisiana law the offense is a misdemeanor punishable only by a fine which may not exceed $500 plus an amount equal to one and one-half times the amount not properly reported. See Section 1491, Louisiana Election Campaign Finance Disclosure Act. By contrast, a violation of section 1341 is a felony punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment. I recognize that state law is not determinative in these matters, but if we do rely on state law to characterize conduct as being violative of section 1341, then it seems to me appropriate to consider how the state regards such conduct. It does not appear to me that Louisiana regards the knowingly filing of false reports, without more, to be a “defrauding” of the state or the Committee.6
*422Nor do I believe that the decisions of the Supreme Court construing 18 U.S.C. § 371 and its predecessors dictate a result at variance with the above analysis. While such decisions do stand for the proposition that a pecuniary detriment to the United States is not necessary to make out a conspiracy “to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose” contrary to section 371, none of them has gone so far as to hold that the United States is defrauded merely by knowingly furnishing it false information, where, apart from this deception itself, there is no collateral material deprivation or benefit intended.7 Indeed, the Supreme Court has rejected the predecessor to section 371 as a basis on which to prosecute “fraudulent” interference with the electoral process. United States v. Gradwell, 243 U.S. 476, 37 S.Ct. 407, 61 L.Ed. 857 (1917). Moreover, on at least two occasions the Supreme Court has refused to employ its decisions dealing with section 371 as a proper basis for giving a broad construction to other antifraud statutes. See United States v. Cohn, 270 U.S. 339, 346-47, 46 S.Ct. 251, 253, 70 L.Ed. 616 (1926) (noting the different context of the statute there involved and stating that “defrauding” was not to be construed “beyond its usual and primary sense” as “relating to the fraudulent causing of pecuniary or property loss”); Bridges v. United States, 346 U.S. 209, 220-21 n.19, 73 S.Ct. 1055, 1062 n.19, 97 L.Ed. 1557 (1953) (distinguishing cases under the predecessor to section 371 on the basis of its broad “in any manner or for any purpose” language).
Similar reasoning also suggests that section 1341 should not be read as broadly as section 371. While the former does denounce “any scheme or artifice to defraud” (emphasis added), the word “any” may properly be understood as indicating an expansive reading of “scheme or artifice” rather than “defraud.” Accordingly, it is the range of methods, not objects, which is thus broadened. See, e.g., Durland v. United States, 161 U.S. 306, 16 S.Ct. 508, 40 L.Ed. 709 (1896). By contrast, the words “in any manner or for any purpose” in section 371 unmistakably extend to both methods and objects, and on any fair reading must be viewed as substantially more expansive than the modifier “any” in section 1341. Moreover, the overall context of section 1341 is plainly directed to defrauding in its usual and primary tangible or economic sense. See United States v. Cohn, *423supra8 The opposite is the case with section 371; there the emphasis is on protection of the United States from “any offense” against it, and “offense” in this connection has been construed to include many civil as well as criminal wrongs. See United States v. Wiesner, 216 F.2d 739 (2d Cir. 1954); Hunsaker v. United States, 279 F.2d 111 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 364 U.S. 819, 81 S.Ct. 52, 5 L.Ed.2d 49 (1960).
With respect to the question of whether defrauding can consist merely of a deceitful interference with governmental functions, it is plain that such a reading is far more congenial to section 371 than to section 1341. The former section has as its sole purpose the protection of the United States, while the latter does not even mention any government as being a victim of defrauding. The text of section 1341 furnishes no basis for distinguishing between a deceitful interference with a governmental function and a similar interference with the function of any other entity. Thus, for example, nothing in the text of section 1341 justifies holding that our hypothetical candidate would not violate that section by his mailing to the newspaper but would if he mailed a similar false report to the Committee. No such problem is present in section 371 prosecutions, for that section is clearly limited to instances where the United States is victimized.
Particularly instructive in this regard is the opinion in Curley v. United States, 130 F. 1 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 195 U.S. 628, 25 S.Ct. 787, 49 L.Ed. 351 (1904). This is perhaps the leading early decision rationalizing a broad interpretation of the words “defraud the United States in any manner or for any purpose” in the predecessor to section 371. Curley was charged with a violation of this provision for conspiring with Hughes to defraud the United States by impersonating Hughes at a civil service examination, forging Hughes’ name and the like, so that Hughes could obtain employment with the post office.
Though it recognized that the indictment charged an intended economic harm to the United States (“[i]t is difficult to see why a conspiracy to wrongfully secure a statutory salary from the government, through fraudulent impersonation, stands differently than a conspiracy to fraudulently procure a pension from the government ... ”; id. at 13), the Court nevertheless expressed at some length its view that, under this particular statute, the words “defraud the United States ... for any purpose” were not restricted by the concept of economic harm. The opinion is at pains to distinguish statutes prohibiting defrauding generally, where the only wrongful conduct denounced is defrauding but the class of victims is unlimited, from the predecessor to section 371, which deals with all offenses against the United States as well as defrauding it, but has as its beneficiary only the United States.9
More specifically, the Court goes on to indicate that where the victims protected are generally defined, “defraud” would properly have a narrower construction, even *424though the general class of victims includes local governments:
“Quite likely the word ‘defraud,’ as ordinarily used in the common law, and as used in English statutes and in the statutes of our states, enacted with the object of protecting property and property rights of communities and individuals, as well as of municipal governments, which exist largely for the purpose of administering local financial affairs, has reference to frauds relating to money and property. If this is so, it is because the word is used in that sense, but it may well enough have a broader sense, and be used for a broader purpose.” Id. at 6-7 (emphasis added).
On the other hand, where the sole purpose of the statute was to protect the government, a broader reading should be given.10
In sum, every reason given in Curley for a construction of the predecessor to section 371 so as not to limit its use of “defraud” to instances where tangible or economic loss is contemplated supports a construction of section 1341 which does so limit its use of “defraud.” The majority opinion has in effect stood the Curley rationale on its head.
While the analysis made in Curley furnishes persuasive support for its construction of the predecessor to section 371, it must be noted that such construction is not without many serious problems. See A. Goldstein, Conspiracy To Defraud The United States, 68 Yale Law Journal 405 (1959). To extend such a construction to section 1341 is not only to act without the support of the reasons given in Curley, and indeed contrary to every rationale of Curley, but is to add to the problems inherent in section 371 those posed by a significant expansion of federal law enforcement into matters of traditionally local concern, all without a clear command from Congress to do so.
*425We are dealing here with what is, essentially and traditionally, a matter of local concern — compliance with local law requirements for campaign contributions reporting — -normally handled by local authorities. By contrast, a prosecution under section 371 for conspiracy to defraud the United States obviously relates to a matter which is essentially of national concern. The Supreme Court has on at least two occasions admonished us that the rule requiring a strict construction of criminal statutes is of special force where a broader construction “renders traditionally local criminal conduct a matter for federal enforcement,” United States v. Bass, 404 U.S. 336, 350, 92 S.Ct. 515, 523, 30 L.Ed.2d 488, 498 (1971), or “would alter sensitive federal-state relationships” or “transform[s] relatively minor state offenses into federal felonies.” Rewis v. United States, 401 U.S. 808, 812, 91 S.Ct. 1056, 1059, 28 L.Ed.2d 493, 497 (1971).
I do not dispute that the word “defraud” can be stretched just about as far as one wants to stretch it. But to apply it in the context of section 1341 to the mere knowingly giving of false information to a governmental agency, without more, is indeed to stretch it not only beyond but indeed almost out of sight of its “usual and primary sense.” Such an interpretation is simply irreconcilable with the long-settled rule that “ambiguity concerning the ambit of criminal statutes should be resolved in favor of lenity.” Rewis v. United States, 401 U.S. at 812, 91 S.Ct. at 1059. See also Williams v. United States, - U.S. -, -, 102 S.Ct. 3088, -, 73 L.Ed.2d 767 (1982). It cannot be doubted that the rule of strict construction is applicable to section 1341. Fasulo v. United States, 272 U.S. 620, 629, 47 S.Ct. 200, 202, 71 L.Ed. 443, 445-46 (1926); United States v. Edwards, 458 F.2d 875, 880 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 891, 93 S.Ct. 118, 34 L.Ed.2d 148 (1972). As Bass and Rewis teach us, it is especially applicable in this sort of setting because a broader construction “renders traditionally local criminal conduct a matter for federal enforcement,” 404 U.S. at 350, 92 S.Ct. at 523, alters “sensitive federal-state relationships” and “transform[s] relatively minor state offenses into federal felonies.” 401 U.S. at 812, 91 S.Ct. at 1059. Accordingly, I cannot agree with the majority that the mailing to the Louisiana Committee of any knowingly false contribution report violates section 1341, where there is no fraud or illegality (such as either an illegal contribution or a wrongful diversion of funds contributed), nor any deprivation or advantage, apart from the giving of the incorrect information and the necessarily concomitant concealment of the correct information. That such conduct is reprehensible goes without saying. Indeed it is criminal under Louisiana law, and may be prosecuted by Louisiana authorities. But in my opinion it is not defrauding and does not violate section 1341.

. The majority opinion cites no decisions of the United States Supreme Court in support of its holding in this regard, and I am aware of none. The decisions from this Circuit relied on by the majority in such connection are Weiss v. United States, 122 F.2d 675 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 314 U.S. 687, 62 S.Ct. 300, 86 L.Ed. 550 (1941), and Blachly v. United States, 380 F.2d 665 (5th Cir. 1967). In Weiss “[t]he scheme was to obtain money fraudulently from the State of Louisiana.” 122 F.2d at 679. Blachly involved a typical “pyramid” scheme by which individuals were deceived into buying water softeners on the false premise that they could recoup their cost, and more, by commissions on referrals. The language in Blachly quoted by the majority is itself a quotation from Gregory v. United States, 253 F.2d 104, 109 (5th Cir. 1958), in which the defendant cheated on a mail-in football score prediction contest to win a Cadillac. Each case, in other words, plainly involves obtaining something of material value (in two cases money, in one case an automobile) by deceitful means. The broad language in these cases is plainly expressed in support and amplification of the proposition that “[t]he fraudulent [i.e., deceitful] aspect of the scheme to ‘defraud’ is measured by a nontechnical standard.” Blachly, 380 F.2d at 671. This simply harks back to the decision in Durland v. United States, 161 U.S. 306, 16 S.Ct. 508, 40 L.Ed. 709 (1895), that representations and promises made in connection with the sale of worthless bonds without the intent to carry them out were a scheme or artifice to defraud under the mail fraud statute, though they might not have been common law fraud, which was then assertedly limited to representations of *419past or existing facts. This does not relate to the object of the scheme, or to the requirement that it be calculated to achieve for the perpetrator or deprive the victim of something either tangible or of actual or potential economic value.
In United States v. States, 488 F.2d 761 (8th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 417 U.S. 909, 94 S.Ct. 2605, 41 L.Ed.2d 212 (1974), the Court cited, generally in support of the proposition that the scheme need not be calculated to acquire for the perpetrator or deprive the victim of a tangible item or something of actual or potential economic value, among other decisions, those by this Circuit in Abbott v. United States, 239 F.2d 310 (5th Cir. 1956); Shushan v. United States, 117 F.2d 110 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 313 U.S. 574, 61 S.Ct. 1085, 85 L.Ed. 1531 (1941); Steiner v. United States, 134 F.2d 931 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 319 U.S. 774, 63 S.Ct. 1439, 87 L.Ed. 1721 (1943); and Bradford v. United States, 129 F.2d 274 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 317 U.S. 683, 63 S.Ct. 205, 87 L.Ed. 547 (1942). None of these cases support that proposition. In Abbott the object of the scheme was the acquisition of confidential and highly valuable geophysical maps belonging to Magnolia Petroleum Company and the destruction of “the rightful exclusive enjoyment by Magnolia of its own property.” 239 F.2d at 314. While intangible, as well as tangible, property was involved, clearly there was a deprivation of property and of economic benefit; the deprivation was not purely of information having no economic value. In Shushan the scheme was described as one “to obtain sums of money from the Board” and as “a scheme to defraud and to obtain money by false representations.” 117 F.2d at 115. To the extent that Shushan has a broad reach, it is in its statement that “[a] scheme to get money” may be within the statute even if it is accomplished by bribery rather than “lies.” 117 F.2d at 115. In Steiner the defendants “defrauded the State and its taxpayers out of many thousands of dollars.” 134 F.2d at 933. In Bradford the defendants’ scheme was “to sell motor buses to the city at exorbitant prices, so that, from the money fraudulently obtained, the schemers would get unearned profits.” 129 F.2d at 275. In three of these cases, then, what the victim was to lose, and the villain to gain, was money, while in the fourth case the object was the victim’s valuable maps.
Of course, there is no question of Congress’ power under the Constitution to make criminal virtually any use of the mails in furtherance of any illegality or scheme contrary to public policy. Badders v. United States, 240 U.S. 391, 393, 36 S.Ct. 367, 368, 60 L.Ed. 706, 708 (1916). See U. S. Postal Service v. Greenburgh Civic Ass’n, 453 U.S. 114, 69 L.Ed.2d 517, 101 S.Ct. 2676 (1981). But in section 1341 Congress plainly has not approached the limit of its powers in this regard. Fasulo v. United States; 272 U.S. 620, 47 S.Ct. 200, 71 L.Ed. 443 (1926); United States v. Maze, 414 U.S. 395, 94 S.Ct. 645, 38 L.Ed.2d 603 (1974). The question, then, is the meaning of the words used in section 1341, as determined in the light of recognized rules for the construction of criminal statutes.

. United States v. McNeive, 536 F.2d 1245, 1250-51 (8th Cir. 1976), points out, for example, that in United States v. George, 477 F.2d 508 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 827, 94 S.Ct. 155, 38 L.Ed.2d 61 (1973), “the pecuniary loss occasioned by defendant’s nondisclosure of the kickback scheme was a significant factor,” and in United States v. Bush, 522 F.2d 641 (7th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 424 U.S. 977, 96 S.Ct. 1484, 47 L.Ed.2d 748 (1976), the “defendant’s conduct deprived the City of the opportunity of securing the most economically favorable contract.”

. For example, the McNeive opinion, 536 F.2d at 1250-51, characterizes United States v. Keane, 522 F.2d 534 (7th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 424 U.S. 976, 96 S.Ct. 1481, 47 L.Ed.2d 746 (1976), as involving a scheme which “constituted an egregious conflict of interest utilized for personal [economic] gain,” and United States v. Isaacs, 493 F.2d 1124 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 417 U.S. 976, 94 S.Ct. 3184, 41 L.Ed.2d 1146 (1974), as a scheme to obtain by bribery “special favors and preferential treatment” from the government for the donor, which, the Isaacs opinion discloses, had considerable economic value.
United States v. Mandel, 415 F.Supp. 997 (D.Md.1976), aff'd in part, 591 F.2d 1347 (4th Cir. 1979), aff’d, 602 F.2d 653 (4th Cir. 1979) (en banc), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 961, 100 S.Ct. 1647, 64 L.Ed.2d 236 (1980), cited by the majority, also falls in this same category.

. The States decision seems difficult to reconcile with United States v. Gradwell, 243 U.S. 476, 37 S.Ct. 407, 61 L.Ed. 857 (1917), at least on any basis other than as suggested in the preceding paragraph of text. Although Grad-well involved a charge under a predecessor to 18 U.S.C. § 371, rather than section 1341, it appears the “defraud” language of the former act has been given a construction certainly as broad, if not indeed somewhat broader, than “defraud” in section 1341. See text, infra. That Gradwell was a case in which the general election for the United States Congress in Rho-de Island was to be corrupted by bribing the participating voters, instead of through absentee ballots for nonexistent voters procured by misrepresentation as in States, is not a ground for distinction. It has been held that “defraud” under the predecessor to section 371 encompasses bribery as well as misrepresentation. Haas v. Henkel, 216 U.S. 462, 30 S.Ct. 249, 54 L.Ed. 569 (1910); Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942). Moreover, States seems to give an excessively broad reading to the decisions of this Court, see note 1, supra, and to ignore the rule requiring strict construction of criminal statutes, especially where the subject matter involves conduct traditionally governed by local law enforcement.

. The Second Circuit stated:
“[D]efendants intended to deceive their customers but they did not intend to defraud them, because the falsity of their representations was not shown to be capable of affecting the customer’s understanding of the bargain nor of influencing his assessment of the value of the bargain to him, and thus no injury was shown to flow from the deception.” United States v. Regent Office Supply Co., 421 F.2d 1174, 1182 (2d Cir. 1970).

. For example, compare 18 U.S.C. § 371, which provides a penalty of up to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to $10,000 for conspiracy to defraud the United States. See United States v. Wiesner, 216 F.2d 739 (2d Cir. 1954); Hunsaker v. United States, 279 F.2d 111 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 364 U.S. 819, 81 S.Ct. 52, 5 L.Ed.2d 49 (1960).

. Representative decisions include the following.
In Haas it Henkel, 216 U.S. 462, 30 S.Ct. 249, 54 L.Ed. 569 (1910), the defendants bribed employees of the Department of Agriculture to get advance information of its cotton crop estimates. The opinion states that such estimates “are of value and do greatly affect the market price of the crop” and that “the conspiracy was ... to use such information in speculating upon the cotton market.” 216 U.S. at 478, 30 S.Ct. at 253. Plainly the defendants intended by their bribery to get something of economic value; moreover, they deprived the United States of the services of its employees.
United States v. Johnson, 383 U.S. 169, 86 S.Ct. 749, 15 L.Ed.2d 681 (1966), and Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942), are each cases in which the defendant officials took bribes to affect criminal prosecution. Each thus involves the United States being deprived of the services of its officials, as well as the contemplated effect on the criminal prosecution.
In Dennis v. United States, 384 U.S. 855, 86 S.Ct. 1840, 16 L.Ed.2d 973 (1966), union officials allegedly filed knowingly false “non-Communist” affidavits with the N. L. R. B., intending to thereby procure for the union the services of the N. L. R. B. which would otherwise have been unavailable to it. The opinion notes that “[t]he union thereafter proceeded, on several occasions, to utilize the Board’s services, a privilege which it had obtained as a result of these assertedly fraudulent acts.” 384 U.S. at 859, 86 S.Ct. at 1843. Thus the fraud contemplated that services, presumably of some economic value, would be furnished by the United States to the benefit of defendants’ organization.
United States v. Plyler, 222 U.S. 15, 32 S.Ct. 6, 56 L.Ed. 70 (1911), involved submitting forged vouchers as to character and physical fitness in connection with meeting the requirements for taking the Civil Service examination. There the United States would be induced to administer and grade the examination, and perhaps employ the defendant, by the fraud, which accordingly contemplated some economic detriment to the government and potential economic benefit to the culprit distinct from the deception itself.

. Analogous reference to the nature of other subjects dealt with by a statute to determine the meaning of the words dealing with a particular subject at issue is seen in Third National Bank v. Impac Limited, Inc., 432 U.S. 312, 322, 97 S.Ct. 2307, 2313, 53 L.Ed.2d 368, 376 (1977).

. The opinion states:
“. .. the sections in question only assume to deal with wrongs against the federal government, and expressly describe conspiracies to commit offenses against the United States and conspiracies to defraud the United States, thus limiting the subject-matter of the legislation to matters concerning the federal government alone; and, while the language is general as to persons and conspiracies, the subject with which the statute assumes to deal limits its scope to conspiracies to commit offenses against the United States and conspiracies to defraud the United States. Criminal statutes of a state are general in the sense that they operate upon all members of the public and for the protection of all. The statute in question is general in the sense that it operates upon all in respect to subjects which concern the federal government alone, and for the protection of a single entity alone, that of the government.” Curley v. United States, 130 Fed. at 5-6.

. As the Curley Court suggests,
“A statute which, in general terms, has for its object the protection of the individual property rights of the members of the civic body, is one thing; a statute which has for its object the protection and welfare of the government alone, which exists for the purpose of administering itself in the interests of the public, might be quite another thing. The purpose might be broadly different in the two cases.
“The personal rights and interests of individual members of society needing protection are one thing; the rights and interests of a government needing protection are quite another thing. This results from the fact that the rights and interests of individuals and governments are different. The individual rights relate to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and the right to acquire and hold property. Governments are instituted for the purpose of protecting such individual rights, and they may protect themselves for that purpose and safeguard their own existence. Therefore the word ‘defraud’ may have a different meaning in a statute for the protection of the government and its administration than when used in a statute designed for the protection of personal rights.
“In considering a statute enacted for the protection of the government, an entity which, in its right to render service to the people under wise and beneficent laws, holds property only as an incident of governing, and which declares it a penal offense to conspire to defraud the government for any purpose, we need not necessarily, we think, approach the question of the interpretation of the word ‘defraud’ from the same standpoint from which the question would be considered if the word ‘defraud’ were used in a state statute enacted for the protection of ordinary property rights of individuals constituting a state; and this is so for the reason that in the one instance the statute in its ordinary acceptation has reference to property and property rights alone, while in the other it has reference to a broader purpose, that of protecting the government in its administration under the law, as well as protecting the property of the government which it holds as an incident to the fundamental purpose for which the government was instituted.” Id. at 7-8 (emphasis added).
The Court’s opinion also reflects the significance to a broad construction of “defraud,” of the “for any purpose” language and of the fact that the commission of any offense against the United States is an alternative object of the conspiracy denounced by the statute:
“The statute thus clearly and expressly carries its provisions beyond wrongs which had been expressly declared to be offenses against the United States, and extends its provisions so as to embrace fraud in any manner for any purpose, and it would thus seem apparent that it was intended by Congress to carry the meaning of the statute beyond frauds in respect to property and property rights by declaring against fraud for any purpose . . .. ” Id. at 4 (emphasis added).