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Schmuck v. United States | 489 U.S. 705 (1988)

Generally, a person may be convicted of mail fraud by using the mail to execute, or attempt to execute, a scheme to defraud others. In Schmuck versus United States, the United States Supreme Court considered whether a person could be guilty of mail fraud, or a lesser included offense, when the mailing was only incidental to an essential part of the fraudulent scheme.

Wayne Schmuck was a used-car distributor in Wisconsin.

Over the course of 15 years, Schmuck ran a fraudulent scheme where he rolled back the odometers on used cars and sold the cars at inflated prices to used-car dealers. The car dealers then resold the cars to retail customers.

To complete the sale of each car, the dealer who purchased it from Schmuck was required to mail a title-application form. In fact, receipt of a Wisconsin title was needed to complete the resale. Without it, the dealer couldn’t transfer title, and the customer couldn’t get Wisconsin tags.

Subsequently, Schmuck was indicted in federal district court on twelve counts of mail fraud.

Prior to trial, Schmuck moved to dismiss the indictment, arguing that the title-application forms mailed by the dealers weren’t in furtherance of the fraudulent scheme and didn’t satisfy the mailing element of the crime of mail fraud. Schmuck also moved under Section 31 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, or FRCP, for a jury instruction on tampering with an odometer as a lesser included offense.

The court denied both motions, and following a jury trial, Schmuck was found guilty on all counts. Schmuck appealed to the Seventh Circuit, which affirmed as to the decision on the motion to dismiss but reversed as to the decision on the lesser offense of odometer tampering. The United States Supreme Court granted cert.

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