United States v. Brooks, No. 09-20871 (5th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseDefendants appealed their conviction of and sentencing for false reporting of natural gas trades in violation of the Commodities Exchange Act (CEA), 49 U.S.C. 1491, and the federal wire fraud statute. The government alleged that defendants violated the CEA and the wire fraud statute by sending false information about natural gas prices to trade magazines that reported natural gas prices in indexes, in an effort to affect and manipulate those indexes, which, in turn, would affect the market for natural gas futures and benefit the company's financial positions. The court held that defendants failed to show clear error in the district court's factual findings, and under those facts, the court found that denial of the motion to dismiss the indictment was proper; the CEA covered no constitutionally protected speech; beyond the issue of whether the means rea applied to the final element of the false reporting offense - which the court was confident was harmless if it was erroneous - the court found no errors in the jury instructions and held that the cumulative error doctrine did not require reversal; defendants' argument that the district court erred by denying their motion for acquittal because they were convicted for answering fundamentally ambiguous questions was rejected; in regards to defendants' claims of evidentiary error, the district court did not err; and because the court found defendants' arguments unavailing, the court affirmed the sentences.
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