Court Opinion

ID: 9488436
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:45:04.550217+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:53.347954
License: Public Domain

SILER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent, as I feel that the majority is limiting 18 U.S.C. § 666 more than is justified, either by reading the statute itself or through the legislative history.
The jurisdictional requirement of the statute is that the organization receive benefits worth more than $10,000.00 under a federal program in a one-year period. 18 U.S.C. § 666(b). Then, the offense occurs when the accused takes property that is worth $5,000.00 or more. The statute does not mention that the theft has to occur during a one-year period, or that the one-year period has to be the same as that listed in § 666(b). The purpose of promulgating this statute, in part, was to augment the more restrictive theft provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 641, which requires that the property stolen belongs to the United States. See United States v. Sanderson, 966 F.2d 184, 188 (6th Cir.1992).
Although the majority opinion indicates that the intent of Congress was to prosecute “significant acts of theft,” that is explicit in the statute, which has a threshold of $5,000.00. The theft is significant when it exceeds $5,000.00. However, there is no reason why the theft could not occur over a period of time or through several transactions. See id. Therefore, I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that the statute requires the $5,000.00 theft to occur during a one-year period. The statute only requires that the theft overlap with the one-year time frame set out in § 666(b).
Because I agree with the other legal conclusions in the majority opinion, I would affirm the judgment of the district court.