The US Supreme Court’s ruling affirming a state contractor’s convictions for wire fraud is a victory for the government, reversing a decades-long trend of the Court siding with defendants and winnowing the federal fraud statutes. But although the government may now be able to go farther in prosecuting fraud cases than it would have before, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will.
While prosecutors may feel emboldened by the high court’s decision, they have limited resources and are going to be guided by the administration’s priorities, Bracewell’s David Shargel told Bloomberg Law. Those priorities include protecting the public fisc, and Shargel believes the government will likely keep its focus on cases where, unlike here, there was a monetary loss.
