White Collar Roundup - April 2013

No Reversal for Skilling Mistake

In United States v. Nouri, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the defendants' honest-services fraud convictions even though the district court failed to instruct the jury that it had to find proof of a quid pro quo as required by Skilling v. United States. While the Second Circuit agreed the instructions were erroneous, it refused to reverse the conviction on plain-error review because it found the evidence of guilt was overwhelming. The court "ha[d] no doubt that, had the jury been properly instructed, it would have found the defendants guilty of honest-services wire fraud based on their scheme of concealed bribery." The court based its reasoning in part on the fact that the jury also found the defendants guilty of commercial bribery under the Travel Act, belying any claim of insufficient evidence of a quid pro quo. The court "s[aw] no reasonable likelihood that the jury would have reached a different verdict on