Sam Sarkis Solakyan v. United States

In Black v. United States, 561 U.S. 465 (2010), the Court granted certiorari to resolve a circuit split on this question: “Whether 18 U.S.C. § 1346 applies to the conduct of a private individual whose alleged ‘scheme to defraud’ did not contemplate economic or other property harm to the private party to whom honest services were owed.” Pet. for Cert. at i, Black v. United States, 561 U.S. 465 (2010), No. 08-876 (Jan. 9, 2009). But the Court did not reach this question in Black. Instead, the Court reversed the petitioner’s conviction on the ground set forth in Skilling v. United States, 561 U.S. 358 (2010), which was decided the same day. The circuit split identified in Black has only grown larger since then. The question presented in this case is the one the Court did not reach in Black, with some slight rewording to better reflect the divergence among the circuits. The question is: Whether a private individual may be convicted of honest-services fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1346 where the alleged scheme to defraud did not contemplate any harm to the private party to whom honest services were owed.