Mail Fraud and Wire Fraud: Why Business Owners go to Prison

Overview

When federal prosecutors contemplate charges against business owners, two of their most potent and readily available tools include charges for mail fraud and wire fraud. The elements to convict for these crimes are clear: 1) The defendant devised or intended to devise a scheme or artifice to defraud, and, 2) in executing or attempting to execute the scheme, the defendant used or caused the use of mail or an interstate wire or wireless transmission. Mail, emails, cell phone calls, text messages, Internet transmissions, and even tweets could form the basis for charges of wire fraud or mail fraud. The crime of wire fraud is a reason that many business owners go to prison. In this course, weÆ’?Tll learn about a few people whoÆ’?Tve experienced a conviction for wire fraud. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Prerequisites

None

Objectives

After attending this presentation you will be able to...

• Define fraud
• Identify business decisions that could lead to federal charges for wire or mail fraud
• Describe what prosecutors must prove to sustain convictions for either wire fraud or mail fraud
• Explain how the federal sentencing guidelines accommodate convictions for wire fraud or mail fraud
• Understand why prosecutors rely upon wire-fraud statutes to charge business owners from any sector within the economy.

Highlights

The major topics that will be covered in this class include:

• What is fraud?
• How business owners become vulnerable to charges for mail fraud and wire fraud
• What business leaders know about how communications can lead to criminal charges
• Discussion of actual fraud cases involving business leaders that went to prison for wire fraud.
• Federal sentencing guidelines
• Sentencing for mail fraud and wire fraud convictions