United States v. Shaw, No. 13-50136 (9th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseDefendant was convicted scheming to defraud a financial institution in violation of 18.U.S.C. 1344(1). Defendant’s scheme was to use PayPal to convince banks that he was a certain bank customer and thus had authority to transfer money out of the customer’s bank accounts and into the PayPal account in Defendant’s control. Defendant sought a jury instruction that, under section 1344(1), the government had to prove not only that he intended to target the bank but that he also intended to target the bank as the principal financial victim of the fraud. The district court refused to give the proffered instruction, concluding that section 1344(1) required proof only that Defendant intended to deceive the bank and not that he intended the bank to bear the loss. The Ninth Circuit affirmed, holding (1) for a violation of section 1344(1), the government need not prove that a defendant intended the bank to be the principal financial victim of the fraud; and (2) therefore, the district court correctly refused jury instructions that included such a requirement.
Court Description: Criminal Law. The panel affirmed a conviction for a scheme to defraud a financial institution, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344(1), in a case in which the defendant used PayPal to convince banks that he was a particular bank customer and thus had authority to transfer money out of that customer’s bank accounts and into a PayPal account in the defendant’s control. The panel held that for a violation of § 1344(1), the government need not prove that the defendant intended the bank to be the principal financial victim of the fraud, and that the district court therefore correctly refused jury instructions that included such a requirement.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on March 27, 2018.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.