Implications of 'Countrywide' for Mail and Wire Fraud Prosecutions

July 7, 2016  |  New York Law Journal

Prosecutors tend to interpret white-collar criminal statutes expansively, and sometimes courts push back. In this article, we discuss the Second Circuit’s decision reversing the $1.2 billion judgment against Bank of America’s Countrywide mortgage unit, and explain how a relatively obscure principle of statutory interpretation, the “common law canon,” led to the Second Circuit’s unexpected decision.

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