United States v. Ponec’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 federal appellate ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “a scheme or artifice— (1) to defraud a financial institution; or (2) to obtain any of the moneys, funds, credits, assets, securities, or other property owned by, or under the custody or control of, a financial institution, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises ....”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. United States v. Staples · United States v. Steffen

2. “Paragraph (2) of the statute refers to a scheme to obtain monies or other property of a financial institution. Under this paragraph, some loss to the institution, or at least an attempt to cause a loss, appears to be required. The other portion of the statute, however, paragraph (1), simply prohibits “defraud[ing] a financial institution.... ” Paragraph (1) says nothing about loss to the institution, either actual or intended. So long as one has “defraud[ed]” a financial institution, one has violated the statute, whether or not loss has occurred. Otherwise, there seems to be no reason for Congress to have set out two separate ways in which bank fraud could be committed under this statute. In fact, we have specifically so held. In United States v. Solomonson, 908 F.2d 358 (8th Cir.1990), the defendant was charged with, among other things, directing the transfer of funds from certain corporate accounts to his personal accounts, without having the right or authority to do so. He was convicted of both mail fraud and bank' fraud. On appeal, defendant argued that he could not be convicted of bank fraud because the bank in question had not suffered any financial loss. We squarely rejected this argument, saying, among other things: We. have difficulty believing that ... a successful scheme to defraud that does not result in financial loss to a bank is not within the conduct proscribed by section 1344. Thus, we hold that the government was not required to prove that [the bank] suffere”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 265 F. Supp. 2d 1017 - United States v. Nieman

3. “we grant that the government needed to prove that Mr. Ponec deliberately made false representations to the bank. Otherwise there would be no scheme or artifice to defraud.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 753 F. Supp. 2d 903 - United States v. Steffen