## Facts

- The steamship *Dio* was owned by the United States and operated for the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation, a U.S.-owned corporation.
- The National Shipping Corporation operated the vessel and was reimbursed by the Fleet Corporation for fuel and related expenses.
- Raymond H. Bowman, the ship’s engineer, and the ship’s master allegedly formed a plan while at sea to defraud the Fleet Corporation through a false fuel-oil transaction.
- The scheme allegedly involved ordering and receipting for 1,000 tons of fuel oil, taking only 600 tons aboard, and causing payment to be obtained for the undelivered 400 tons.
- The indictment alleged participation by a Standard Oil agent in Rio de Janeiro and a merchant in Rio who was to collect, and did collect, money tied to the false claim.
- Overt acts were alleged on the high seas and in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
- Bowman and others were indicted in the Southern District of New York under § 35 of the Criminal Code (as amended in 1918) for conspiracy to defraud a U.S. instrumentality by obtaining payment on a false and fraudulent claim.
- The district court sustained a demurrer and quashed the indictment, concluding the statute did not apply extraterritorially; the United States sought review.

## Issues

1. Whether § 35 of the Criminal Code, though silent on geographic scope, applies to U.S. citizens whose alleged conspiracy and fraudulent acts occurred on the high seas and in a foreign country.
2. Whether the indictment could proceed in a U.S. district court based on alleged fraud against a U.S. government corporation carried out abroad.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed the judgment quashing the indictment and reinstated the prosecution.
- The Court held that a criminal statute aimed at conduct directly injuring the United States and capable of commission regardless of locality may apply to U.S. citizens on the high seas or in foreign countries without an express statement of extraterritorial reach.
- Section 35 was construed to reach conspiracies by U.S. citizens to defraud the Fleet Corporation through false claims made or caused to be made abroad.
- For such offenses, U.S. citizens may be tried in the district where they are first brought.

## Legal Principles

- Statutory scope may be inferred from a statute’s purpose and the nature of the offense, including limits recognized under international law.
- Federal criminal provisions directed at protecting the United States and its property interests are not necessarily confined to U.S. territory; silence on location does not bar application abroad when the offense is inherently transnational in execution and harm.
- A distinction exists between (a) crimes against private persons or property, typically presumed territorial, and (b) offenses protecting governmental functions or property, for which extraterritorial application to U.S. nationals may be inferred.
- Penal statutes should be construed fairly to effect legislative intent, rather than narrowly in a manner that would permit easily executed foreign-based frauds on the United States to go unpunished.
- Under the nationality principle, U.S. citizens may be subjected to U.S. penal laws protecting the government and its property while abroad, with venue in the district where the defendant is first brought.

## Conclusion

The Court held that § 35’s prohibition on conspiracies to defraud the United States and its instrumentalities applied to U.S. citizens who executed the alleged fraud on the high seas and in a foreign country, and it reversed the dismissal of the indictment so the prosecution could proceed.


United States v. Bowman, 260 U.S. 94 (1922)