Contractor’s SCOTUS Case Likely to Limit Federal Fraud Statutes

The US Supreme Court’s decision to hear a case dealing with the validity of the “fraudulent inducement” theory of mail and wire fraud signals its intent to limit, yet again, the reach of federal fraud statutes.

The high court hasn’t generally taken criminal fraud and corruption cases to affirm defendants’ convictions. In the most high-profile cases on the topic in the past 15 years, the high court has reversed convictions and narrowed the scope of the federal statutes, said Brandon Essig, a white collar partner at Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC in Birmingham, Ala.

Those cases include 2010’s Skilling v. ...