August 24th, 2009 by Leonard Birdsong
Twitter is online crooks’ new tool according to a recent news report.
Cybercriminals are rapidly using Twitter — the popular Web-messaging service — to direct users to Web sites that sell pornography and fake drugs and trigger promotions for fake anti-virus subscriptions. Anyone can sign up anonymously for a Twitter account and begin pushing unfiltered messages.
March 5th, 2009 by Leonard Birdsong
The H.J. v. Northwest Bell Telephone case is provided for Birdsong’s White Collar Crime students as part of their required reading during week 8 of the course when we begin our study of the RICO law.
H.J. Inc. v. Northwestern Bell Telephone Co.
492 U.S. 229, 109 S.Ct. 2893
U.S.Minn.,1989.
June 26, 1989
Justice BRENNAN delivered the opinion of the Court.
We are called upon in this civil case to consider what conduct meets RICO’s pattern requirement.
January 20th, 2009 by Leonard Birdsong
Schmuck v. U.S.
489 U.S. 705, 109 S.Ct. 1443
U.S.Wis.,1989.
BLACKMUN delivered the opinion of the Court.
I
In August 1983, petitioner Wayne T. Schmuck, a used-car distributor, was indicted in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin on 12 counts of mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1342. App. 3.e alleged fraud was a common and straightforward one. Schmuck purchased used cars, rolled back their odometers, and then sold the automobiles to Wisconsin retail dealers for prices artificially inflated because of the low-mileage readings. These unwitting car dealers, relying on the altered odometer figures, then resold the cars to customers, who in turn paid prices reflecting Schmuck’s fraud. To complete the resale of each automobile, the dealer who purchased it from Schmuck would submit a title-application form to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation on behalf of his retail customer. The receipt of a Wisconsin title was a prerequisite for completing the resale; without it, the dealer could not transfer title to the customer and the customer could not obtain Wisconsin tags. The submission of the title-application form supplied the mailing element of each of the alleged mail frauds.
Before trial, Schmuck moved to dismiss the indictment on the ground that the mailings at issue-the submissions of the title-application forms by the automobile dealers-were not in furtherance of the fraudulent scheme and, thus, did not *708 satisfy the mailing element of the crime of mail fraud. Schmuck also moved under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 31(c) FN1 for a jury instruction on the then misdemeanor offense of tampering with an odometer, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1984 and 1990c(a) (1982 ed.).FN2 The District Court denied both motions.FN3 After trial, the jury returned guilty verdicts on all 12 counts.
