U.S. v. Mullins

Record contained sufficient evidence to support jury’s guilty verdict on fraud and wire fraud charges arising out of scheme in which defendant assisted vendors to obtain payments for County work and received kickbacks from said vendors after defendant approved vendor’s proposals for work in his role as purchasing agent for County. Record was sufficient to establish wire fraud charge where defendant: (1) altered vendors' proposals and wrote invoices to fit below $25,000 threshold in effort to avoid detection by County Bd. of Commissioners; and (2) assisted said vendors to receive payments prior to completion of any work and despite vendors never delivering services commensurate with County’s payments to them. Moreover, record showed that defendant received kickbacks from said vendors under guise that defendant was “subcontractor” in effort by vendors to secure future awards from County. Moreover, while prosecutor misstated facts during closing arguments regarding whether other vendors were ever prepaid for contractual work for County, any misstatement was harmless given strength of case against defendant.