High Court Declines Health-Care CEO’s Honest Services Fraud Case

The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by the former CEO of Vital Imaging Inc. over the scope of the federal honest services fraud statute.

The petition asked whether a private individual—as opposed to a public official—may be convicted of honest services fraud when the alleged scheme to defraud didn’t “contemplate any harm to the private party to whom honest services were owed.”

Courts agree there’s no contemplated harm requirement in public-sector honest services fraud cases involving public officials. But there’s disagreement over whether such a requirement applies in private sector cases, petitioner Sam Solakyan said. ...