By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//August 8, 2011//
Mail fraud
Sufficiency of the evidence
Circumstantial evidence is sufficient to prove that embezzled checks were sent through the mail.
“Drawing the inferences in the government’s favor, as we must, a reasonable understanding of Lewis’s testimony is that when checks were mailed, they were put through the metering process and delivered to the post office, and when they were picked up, they never touched the metering machine. Why should they, in the latter case? IDWDS would incur the cost of postage as soon as the envelopes were metered. If the envelopes were metered, and then picked up by the Trustee’s Office, IDWDS would needlessly be wasting postage. We have no reason to assume that IDWDS took such a cavalier attitude toward its funds. The envelopes here were metered; there is no evidence that the agency hand-delivered any metered mail; and so the jury was entitled to infer that they were mailed.”
Affirmed.
10-2140, 10-2181 & 10-2182 U.S. v. Joshua
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Simon, J., Wood, J.