The Prosecution of ‘Quasi-Public Officials’ After Percoco v. United States

September 7, 2023  |  New York Law Journal

For decades, federal prosecutors have charged private individuals who wield substantial political power with “honest services” fraud.  In the Second Circuit, this theory of prosecuting “quasi-public officials” with fraud originated with the early 1980s case against the Nassau County party leader, Joseph Margiotta.  In their latest article “The Prosecution of ‘Quasi-Public Officials’ After Percoco v. United States,” Morvillo Abramowitz partners Elkan Abramowitz and Jonathan Sack discuss the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Percoco v. United States, which set aside the honest services fraud conviction of Joseph Percoco on the basis of flawed jury instructions, which were modeled after the instructions affirmed in the Margiotta case.  In the view of the Supreme Court, the instructions did not give the jury a sufficiently clear and bounded definition of “the intangible right to honest services.”  

The Prosecution of ‘Quasi-Public Officials’ After Percoco v. United States (pdf | 164.94 KB)