Ciminelli v. United States

Background

A developer who ran a construction company worked with a nonprofit that managed state-funded "Buffalo Billion" projects. A board member and a lobbyist arranged to tailor requests for proposals so the developer would be the preferred builder and win a major $750 million project. After the scheme was exposed, the developer and others were indicted and tried for wire fraud based on a theory that they had deprived the nonprofit of valuable economic information it needed to decide how to use its assets.

Reasoning

The Court examined whether the wire fraud law covers schemes that only withhold economic information. The wire fraud statute has long protected money or traditional property interests. The Court explained that the so-called "right to control" — the idea that information needed to make business decisions is itself property — was not a traditional property interest when the law was written. Congress later revived only the narrow "honest services" theory, not a broad information-based property rule. The Government conceded that the right-to-control theory, as applied below, was incorrect. The Court therefore held that the Second Circuit’s theory cannot support a wire-fraud conviction and reversed the judgment.

Real world impact

This decision limits federal prosecutors’ ability to convert routine state contract or disclosure disputes into federal crimes merely by calling withheld information "property." The developer’s conviction was reversed and the case is sent back for further proceedings consistent with this ruling. The Court declined to substitute its own view of the facts for the jury’s role, so retrial or other actions may follow under traditional property theories.