USA v. Luis Pelisamen, No. 10-10022 (9th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed convictions of conspiracy to commit fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering in connection with the unauthorized removal of funds from his grandmother's estate, of which he was the administrator. At issue was whether a conviction for wire fraud remained valid in light of Skilling v. United States where the language of the indictment and the evidence offered by the government supported a "money or property" theory of fraud, where the jury was instructed on both a "money or property" theory and honest-services theory, and where the jury returned a special verdict form indicating that it had convicted the defendant on both theories. The court held that Skilling was intended to foreclose as unconstitutional convictions for fraud based on acts such as undisclosed self-dealing or conflicts of interest and that it was obvious that the current case involved pecuniary fraud. Therefore, the conviction for wire fraud remained valid where there was no plain error when the error did not affect defendant's substantial rights, nor did it affect the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings.
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