United States v. Greenberg

Defendant appealed his conviction of wire fraud, access device fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering in connection with a scheme to make unauthorized credit card charges to the credit cards of customers of defendant's digital retail company. The court concluded that the district court did not err in denying defendant's motion to dismiss the Superseding Indictment for spoliation of evidence where, pursuant to Arizona v. Youngblood, there is no evidence of the government's bad faith. The court joined its sister circuits and held that wire fraud does not require convergence between the parties intended to be deceived and those whose property is sought in a fraudulent scheme. Therefore, the district court did not err in denying defendant's motion to dismiss the wire fraud counts in the Superseding Indictment for failure to plead a legally cognizable scheme. That the Superseding Indictment alleges that defendant's misrepresentations were directed at acquiring banks and others, but that the credit card holders were the intended victims of the scheme, is irrelevant. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "United States v. Greenberg" on Justia Law