SCOTUS Scales Back Fraud Statutes’ Reach, but Ambiguity Persists

The breadth of federal fraud statutes makes them powerful tools for prosecuting corruption, but recent Supreme Court rulings have consistently narrowed their scope.

Over the past 15 years, the court has issued a steady string of decisions, from Skilling to McDonnell to Kelly, and now Percoco and Ciminelli, that reject aggressive interpretations of those laws, Murad Hussain, a white collar defense attorney with Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, said.

A concern explicitly articulated by the court is that prosecutors might use the laws “to dictate federal ethical standards for state and local governments,” Hussain said.

Percoco v. ...