U.S. v. Pust

Record contained sufficient evidence to support jury’s guilty verdict on four counts of wire fraud arising out of Ponzi scheme, where defendant misrepresented to investors that their investment money was being deposited into secure account to facilitate additional lines of credit to build low-income housing. Rational jury could find that defendant knew that what he was telling investors was false, and that he acted with intent to defraud, where emails indicated that defendant knew that no low-income housing project existed, and that investment funds were taken out of secure escrow account and used for other purposes, including payment of promised inflated interest to initial investors.