## Facts

- The General Services Administration (GSA) contracted with Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) to provide computer and data-processing services and permitted CSC to subcontract for consulting services.
- Under the contract’s consultant schedule, payment rates depended on consultants’ education and experience.
- CSC subcontracted with Icarus Corporation, a consulting firm led by Herbert G. Blecker.
- A CSC official informed Blecker that billing rates depended on specific education and experience requirements and provided the contract materials.
- Trial evidence showed Blecker directed employees to add education and experience to their resumes and altered some resumes without employees’ knowledge.
- Icarus billed CSC using invoices calculated from the inflated resumes; CSC then billed GSA for payment.
- Icarus caused invoices to be mailed to a CSC office in California as part of the billing process.
- Blecker and Icarus were convicted of presenting false claims under 18 U.S.C. § 287; Icarus was also convicted of mail fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1341.

## Issues

1. Whether venue in the Eastern District of Virginia was proper for the false-claims and mail-fraud charges.
2. Whether sufficient evidence supported the § 287 convictions, including whether “presenting” a claim requires direct submission to a federal agency.
3. Whether sufficient evidence supported Icarus’s § 1341 mail-fraud convictions, including whether Icarus “caused” mailings in furtherance of a scheme to defraud.
4. Whether evidence of the actual value of Icarus’s services was relevant or admissible to negate falsity or intent.
5. Whether prosecutorial remarks in closing argument denied defendants a fair trial.

## Decision

- The Fourth Circuit affirmed all convictions.
- Venue was proper because key acts in the offenses, including receipt and processing of claims for payment by GSA, occurred in the Eastern District of Virginia.
- The evidence was sufficient to show Blecker and Icarus knowingly presented false claims to the United States by submitting invoices to CSC while knowing CSC would submit the resulting claims to GSA.
- The evidence was sufficient to show Icarus caused the mails to be used in furtherance of the scheme because mailing invoices was reasonably foreseeable and part of the billing process.
- The trial court did not err by excluding evidence about the value of services, which did not negate the knowing falsity of claims.
- The prosecutor’s closing argument did not deprive defendants of a fair trial when evaluated in context and against the strength of the evidence.

## Legal Principles

- A claim may be “presented” to the United States under 18 U.S.C. § 287 through an intermediary (e.g., a prime contractor) when the defendant submits the claim to the intermediary knowing it will be presented to a federal agency for payment.
- For § 287, the offense is the knowing submission of a false claim; proof of actual loss or that the government received adequate value is not required, and “value received” does not defeat falsity.
- Under 18 U.S.C. § 1341, a defendant “causes” use of the mails when mailings are reasonably foreseeable in the ordinary course of business and are in furtherance of the fraudulent scheme.
- Venue in federal criminal cases may lie in any district where the offense was begun, continued, or completed, including where government receipt and processing of the challenged claims occurred.

## Conclusion

The Fourth Circuit upheld convictions arising from inflated qualifications used to obtain higher consulting rates, holding that false claims presented to a federal agency through a private contractor satisfy § 287, that the value of services does not negate liability for knowingly false claims, that foreseeable mailings in the billing chain support mail-fraud liability, and that venue was proper where the government received and processed the claims for payment.


United States v. Blecker, 657 F.2d 629 (4th Cir. 1981)