United States v. Alluan

13 F. Supp. 289, 1 SEC Jud. Dec. 127, 1936 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1450
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Texas
DecidedJanuary 29, 1936
Docket8511, 8510, 8509
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 13 F. Supp. 289 (United States v. Alluan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Alluan, 13 F. Supp. 289, 1 SEC Jud. Dec. 127, 1936 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1450 (N.D. Tex. 1936).

Opinion

ATWELL, District Judge.

There are twelve counts in No. 8511. The first ten relate to an alleged scheme to defraud, in the execution of which the post office establishment was used. The eleventh count charges a conspiracy and has an exhibition of forty overt acts. The twelfth count pleads an alleged violation of what is known as the Securities Act, charges the use of instruments of transportation and communication in interstate commerce, and of the United States mails. It specifically refers to the scheme and artifice to defraud, as pleaded in the first count.

There are seventeen defendants in this indictment.

It is claimed that they would defraud the persons whose names are set out in the indictment, and other persons too numerous to mention, by false representa *290 tions and promises, thus inducing them to invest money and properties in shares of stock of an alleged mining company. That the mining company would be organized and promoted under the name of the “El Oro Mining Company” with a capital stock of 2,500,000 shares of a par value of $1 each. That the alleged business of said concern was the mining and milling of gold and other precious metals. That among the fraudulent representations and promises to the prospective purchasers would be various and sundry pretenses as to the gold-bearing value of the properties held by said company, which would be a New Mexico corporation. That a mill was to be erected to handle the ore; the listing of the stocks on the New York Stock Exchange, and the prospects of large dividends at an early date. That such representations were false and were to be made and were made by means of personal correspondence, circular letters, and pamphlets, through the United States mail; and by radio, telegram, and oral representations by salesmen. That such stock so to be sold would, when full discovery was made, immediately rise in the market, and purchasers should buy before that happened.

The indictment then properly traverses the truth of such promises and representations in sixteen different paragraphs of negation, after which each count sets forth a letter alleged to have been mailed to the addressee therein shown, for the purpose of carrying out the alleged fraudulent purpose.

Case No. 8510 has seven defendants. The first nine counts charge the fraudulent use of the mails in the representation that certain stocks and securities to be offered by the defendants through the alleged investment service concern, to wit, the Arizona Investment Service, and the Standard Investment Service, Incorporated, later to be known as the Securities Service Corporation, to those who could be induced to purchase said stock by false and fraudulent representations as to their value, and as to the value of the properties represented thereby. That such scheme was to be carried on by means of personal conversation, telephone calls, telegrams, circular letters, and personal correspondence through the United States mails. Each of the nine counts then sets forth a letter alleged to have been sent through the mail.

The tenth count pleads an alleged conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, to wit, to use the mails fraudulently, in the manner shown in the first count, and sets forth twenty-one alleged overt acts.

The eleventh count is based on the National Securities Act of 1933, and charges that the defendants were engaged in the sale of securities, “by the use of means and instruments of transportation and communication in interstate commerce, and by the use of the mails of the United States of America,” as set forth in the first count, and that in such sales they émployed the scheme and artifice to defraud, as shown in that count, pleading four different sorts of alleged fraud and deceit.

Case No. 8509 has twenty defendants, and ten counts. The first eight allege a fraudulent use of the mail by the organization and promotion of a so-called Mid-West Mortgage Corporation, which would engage in the buying and selling of tax titles from the profits of which large returns would be made to investors. The representations with reference to the value of the stock in the said corporation are traversed by seventeen different paragraphs of alleged false statements. In each of the eight mail fraud counts is included a letter alleged to have been mailed to a person to be defrauded.

The ninth count charges the defendants with having conspired together to commit an offense against the United States, to wit, to use the mails fraudulently, as set out in the first count, and pleads forty-seven overt acts in -pursuance of the alleged conspiracy.

The tenth count sets out the carrying on of a business by the defendants, such as comes under the Securities Act, namely, the sale of shares in the Mid-West Mortgage Corporation, by the use of means and instruments of transportation and communication in interstate commerce, and by the use of the United States mails, and that they employed the scheme and artifice to defraud, set out in the first count. Then follow four specific paragraphs in which alleged misrepresentations and false pretenses and promises are specifically treated.

8510 has several defendants who are also charged in 8511. The amount of money alleged to have been secured in these cases is several hundred thousand *291 dollars. Some oí the defendants in 8509 have already entered pleas of guilty and have been sentenced.

All of the other defendants in 8509 join with all of the defendants in 8510 and 8511, in making substantially the same attack upon the indictment, and 1, therefore, treat them together in this opinion, in order to save repetition.

Section 338 of title 18 U.S.C.A. provides: “Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises * * * shall, for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice or attempting so to do, place, or cause to be placed, any letter, postal card, * * * in any post office, or station thereof * * * to be sent or delivered by the post office establishment of the United States * * * shall be’’ punished as shown.

The Securities Act of 1933, § 17, section 77q, title 15 U.S.C.A., provides: “It shall be unlawful for any person in the sale of any securities by the use of any means or instruments of transportation or communication in interstate commerce or by the use of the mails, directly or indirectly — (1) to employ any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud, or (2) to obtain money or property by means of any untrue statement of a material fact or any omission io state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements made, in the light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading, or (3) to engage in any transaction, practice, or course of business which operates or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon the purchaser.”

Section 37, Cr.Code, 18 U.S.C.A.

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Bluebook (online)
13 F. Supp. 289, 1 SEC Jud. Dec. 127, 1936 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1450, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-alluan-txnd-1936.