Under the Collar

Early in our democracy, the government recognized the importance of incentivizing private citizens to report government fraud and abuse. The False Claims Act was enacted during the Civil War to help catch and punish contractors supplying the Union army with shoddy goods. Qui tam, or whistleblower actions under the False Claims Act, put a civilian in the place of the government and permit actions on the government’s behalf. Whistleblower laws not only permit a percentage-based recovery for that individual if the action is successful, but protect the whistleblower from ...

As discussed earlier, the wire fraud statute can be used to impose punishment for each wire transmission that relates to a scheme to defraud. Is there a government interest in protecting us from deceitful wire transmissions and preserving the internet for virtuous intentions? Any amount of time spent on any social media platform should answer that question for you. The interest is protecting the public against schemes to defraud, and the use of wires is the jurisdictional hook—the interstate component of the crime that enables the federal government to prosecute. The crux of the ...

The federal wire fraud statute is one of the broadest and most utilized tools for punishing fraudulent conduct. After Congress enacted the mail fraud statute (making it illegal to use U.S. mail to perpetrate a fraud), it adopted a similar statute to capture the use of wire transmissions to further a fraud.  At the time – 1952 – “wires” mostly constituted the telephone, with some radio and television transmissions. Today, it encompasses all cellular and internet transmissions as well.

A fraud scheme on its own is not necessarily a federal offense.  In order for the U.S. government ...