Ciminelli v. United States

Background

Louis Ciminelli, a construction-company owner, and his firm LPCiminelli competed for state-funded projects under New York’s "Buffalo Billion" program run by Fort Schuyler, a nonprofit. Investigators found that a board member and a lobbyist manipulated the request-for-proposal process to make LPCiminelli a “preferred developer,” helping it win a $750 million Riverbend contract. Federal prosecutors charged Ciminelli with wire fraud and conspiracy, relying solely on a Second Circuit theory that depriving an agency of economic information is “property.”

Reasoning

The Court addressed whether the “right to control”—losing valuable economic information—counts as “money or property” under the federal wire fraud law. Relying on the statute’s text and history, the Court explained that the fraud laws protect traditional property interests only and that the right to information was not long recognized as property when the law was enacted. Congress later revived only the narrow “honest services” theory, not other intangible interests. The Court held the Second Circuit’s right-to-control theory cannot support wire fraud convictions.

Real world impact

The Court reversed the Second Circuit and sent the case back for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. Convictions based solely on depriving victims of economic information must fall. The ruling limits federal prosecutors from converting many information-based or ethics disputes—often handled by states—into federal wire fraud charges. Because the decision resolves a legal theory rather than every factual question, further trials or proceedings on other legal theories could still follow.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice Alito agreed with the Court’s legal holding but wrote separately to note the opinion does not decide remedy or fact-specific questions, like indictment sufficiency, harmless-error issues, or whether retrial on traditional property theories is permitted.