Mail Fraud — money or property

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Criminal

Mail Fraud — money or property

Government jobs are “money for property” for purposes of the mail fraud statute.

“Sanchez argues that jobs are not money or property for purposes of mail fraud and that the city suffered no economic harm; therefore a charge of mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1341 cannot be sustained. These arguments have been addressed by this Court and rejected. See Sorich, 523 F.3d at 713 (‘we hold that jobs are property for purposes of mail fraud’). Furthermore, whether or not jobs are ‘property’, the money paid for the job (that is, the salary) is ‘money’. The City of Chicago did not get the employees that it wanted to hire and thus was cheated out of money. Sanchez’s contention that the workers he hired were just as good as those the City wanted is irrelevant and misses the point. The City, not Sanchez, gets to set the criteria for hiring.”

Affirmed.

11-1380 & 11-1394 U.S. v. Del Valle

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Gettleman, J., Shadid, J.