Second Circuit Courts Grapple With SCOTUS Fraud Guidance

August 13, 2025  |  New York Law Journal

Two recent Second Circuit decisions reveal the struggles of lower courts to implement the Supreme Court’s message to avoid overly expansive interpretations of the federal fraud statutes. In United States v. Lopez, a prosecution in the long running FIFA bribery scandal, the court dutifully applied precedent from an arguably more expansive interpretative era to reverse a lower court ruling that relied on recent SCOTUS decisions to grant a post-trial acquittal.  In contrast, in United States v. Chastain, a prosecution of alleged insider trading of Non-Fungible Tokens, a different panel went to significant lengths to distinguish earlier precedent, pare back the statute and vacate a conviction.  In their latest article for the NYLJ, “Second Circuit Courts Grapple With SCOTUS Fraud Guidance,” Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello PC Partners Robert J. Anello and Richard F. Albert analyze Lopez and Chastain, revealing the ongoing uncertainty regarding the limits of the fraud statutes so often at the core of white-collar crime prosecutions.

Second Circuit Courts Grapple With SCOTUS Fraud Guidance