United States v. Juliana England, 714 F. App'x 798

Juliana James England was convicted of wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1343 for a scheme to defraud her employer and sentenced to 37 months imprisonment and $368,152 restitution.
The government’s theory was that England charged fraudulent credit-card expenses and relied on emailed monthly credit-card statements to learn amounts and make payments, thereby perpetuating the ongoing fraud.
The bank automatically generated and emailed monthly credit-card statements to England; only she accessed the office desktop used to view those emails, allowing concealment from her employer.
England appealed, arguing insufficient evidence that the bank’s emailed statements were communications "in furtherance" of the fraudulent scheme.
The Ninth Circuit applied its two-step sufficiency-of-the-evidence test (view evidence in prosecution’s favor; determine whether any rational juror could find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt) and affirmed the conviction.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether emailed credit-card statements were a wire communication "in furtherance" of the fraud	Emailing of statements furthered the scheme because receipt and prompt payment were essential to perpetuate the ongoing fraud	The automatic, routine nature of the emailed statements meant they were not part of executing the fraud	Held that the emailed statements were in furtherance; sufficient evidence for conviction
Whether automated/routine transmissions can constitute steps in execution of an ongoing fraud	Routine mailings can be steps in an ongoing fraudulent venture	Automation severs causal connection to execution of the scheme	Court rejected defendant’s argument, analogizing to routine mailings that further ongoing schemes
Whether evidence established that electronic statements allowed concealment from employer	Prosecutor: only defendant knew how to access office computer/email, enabling concealment	Defendant disputed that the emails were instrumental to concealment	Court found evidence supported that electronic statements enabled concealment and thus furthered the scheme
Sufficiency of the evidence under Jackson/Nevils standard	Government: combined facts permitted a rational juror to find each element beyond a reasonable doubt	England: pointed to evidence allegedly supporting innocence	Court concluded no reasonable juror could only find innocence; evidence sufficient

United States v. Nevils, 598 F.3d 1158 (9th Cir. 2010) (two-step sufficiency-of-the-evidence framework)
Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (Sup. Ct.) (standard for reviewing sufficiency of the evidence)
United States v. Jinian, 725 F.3d 954 (9th Cir.) (wire communication is "in furtherance" if incident to execution of the scheme)
Schmuck v. United States, 489 U.S. 705 (Sup. Ct.) (routine mailings can be part of executing an ongoing fraudulent scheme)