## Facts

- Henry Paul Bryant (a/k/a Paul Bryant) and Melissa J. Dalton operated a convention-booking business.
- They sought favorable treatment in leasing the Cervantes Convention Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
- The evidence showed that Bryant and Dalton paid the center’s director, Emeric Martin, more than $26,000 from August 1979 to April 1980 in exchange for favorable leasing treatment.
- In carrying out the payment-for-favors scheme, Bryant and Dalton caused a Western Union telegram to be sent.
- The telegram appeared intrastate because it was sent from one location in Missouri to another location in Missouri.
- Western Union’s system routed the telegram through a facility in Virginia, so the transmission in fact traveled in interstate commerce.
- A jury in federal district court convicted Bryant and Dalton on three counts of mail fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1341) and two counts of wire fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1343), among other charges.
- On appeal, Bryant and Dalton challenged the wire-fraud convictions, arguing the government did not prove they knew or could reasonably foresee that the telegram would cross state lines.
- Dalton also argued her mail- and wire-fraud convictions could not stand given Martin’s separate conviction for extortion arising from related events.

## Issues

1. Under 18 U.S.C. § 1343, must the government prove that defendants knew or reasonably could foresee that a wire transmission would travel in interstate commerce when the transmission was sent within one state but was routed out of state by the carrier?
2. Are Dalton’s mail- and wire-fraud convictions legally invalid because they are allegedly inconsistent with Emeric Martin’s separate conviction for extortion?

## Decision

- The Eighth Circuit affirmed Bryant’s and Dalton’s convictions.
- The court held that § 1343 does not require proof that the defendants knew or could foresee the interstate routing of the wire communication; it is enough that the defendants used the wires to execute a fraudulent scheme and that the communication in fact traveled in interstate commerce.
- The court rejected Dalton’s claim that her convictions were invalid due to Martin’s extortion conviction, finding no legal inconsistency requiring reversal.
- The court found the remaining arguments raised on appeal lacked merit.

## Legal Principles

- For wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1343, the government must prove a scheme to defraud, intent to defraud, and use (or causing the use) of wire communications in interstate or foreign commerce to execute the scheme.
- The “in interstate or foreign commerce” element of § 1343 is satisfied when the transmission actually crosses state lines, even if the defendants did not know and could not predict the carrier’s routing path.
- A defendant can “cause” the use of wires by intentionally using a wire service in furtherance of a fraudulent scheme, even if the technical details of how the service routes the message are outside the defendant’s knowledge.
- Convictions in separate prosecutions (e.g., fraud for payors and extortion for a public official) are not automatically invalid merely because they arise from related conduct; different offenses can apply to the same overall set of transactions.

## Conclusion

United States v. Bryant, 766 F.2d 370 (8th Cir. 1985), affirmed mail- and wire-fraud convictions stemming from a bribery scheme at a municipal convention center and held that § 1343 does not require the government to prove the defendants knew or could foresee a telegram’s interstate routing when the telegram actually traveled interstate due to the carrier’s routing; the court also rejected the argument that Dalton’s fraud convictions were legally defeated by the recipient official’s separate extortion conviction.


United States v. Bryant, 766 F.2d 370 (1985)