## Facts

- Georgia L. Thompson, a Wisconsin state procurement official, oversaw an evaluation process to select a travel agent for a large portion of the state’s travel budget.
- Wisconsin procurement rules required awards based on cost and service rather than politics; scoring combined price, written service proposals, and oral presentations.
- After written evaluations, Adelman Travel Group led overall; following oral presentations, Omega World Travel had the highest total score.
- Thompson scored Adelman substantially higher than other evaluators did, which the government argued reflected political favoritism toward Adelman.
- The government contended Thompson improperly influenced timing and scoring to steer the contract to Adelman and thereby “misapplied” state property and committed mail fraud through mailings connected to the procurement.
- A jury convicted Thompson of 18 U.S.C. § 666(a)(1)(A) and 18 U.S.C. § 1341; she was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment and began serving the sentence pending appeal.

## Issues

1. Whether steering a state contract for political reasons, without evidence of bribes, kickbacks, self-enrichment, or diversion of funds, constitutes “intentional misapplication” of property under 18 U.S.C. § 666(a)(1)(A).
2. Whether politically motivated departures from state procurement practices, where the state still receives contracted services and is not shown to have lost money or property, establish a “scheme to defraud” under 18 U.S.C. § 1341.

## Decision

- The Seventh Circuit reversed the convictions on all counts and directed entry of a judgment of acquittal.
- The court ordered Thompson’s immediate release after concluding the evidence did not prove the charged federal offenses.
- The court rejected the government’s theory that politically motivated deviations from state administrative rules become federal felonies whenever federal funds or the mails are involved.

## Legal Principles

- 18 U.S.C. § 666 targets corruption and wrongful diversion or conversion of an entity’s property; “misapplication” is not established by discretionary or procedurally imperfect contracting decisions absent proof of diversion, self-dealing, or comparable misuse of property.
- 18 U.S.C. § 1341 requires a scheme to deprive the victim of money or property; violations of state procurement norms or political favoritism, without a cognizable property deprivation, do not satisfy this element.
- Federal fraud and corruption statutes are not general enforcement tools for state administrative law; political motives alone do not convert state procurement disputes into federal crimes.

## Conclusion

The court held that evidence of political favoritism and alleged procurement irregularities, without proof of bribery, diversion, or a property loss to the state, was insufficient to support convictions under § 666 or the federal mail-fraud statute, warranting acquittal.


United States v. Thompson, 484 F.3d 877 (7th Cir. 2007)