United States v. Ratcliff

Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit·Decided August 13, 2007·No. 05-30666·Published

Opinion

REVISED August 13, 2007

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit

FILED

May 31, 2007

No. 05-30666

Charles R. Fulbruge III

Clerk

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Plaintiff - Appellant - Cross-Appellee v.

BARNEY DEWEY RATCLIFF, JR Defendant - Appellee - Cross-Appellant

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, Baton Rouge

Before KING, GARZA, and PRADO, Circuit Judges. KING, Circuit Judge:

Defendant-appellee-cross-appellant Barney Dewey Ratcliff, Jr. was charged by indictment with fourteen counts of mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341, based on alleged activities involving election fraud in Louisiana. The district court granted Ratcliff’s motion to dismiss the counts, concluding that the indictment did not allege a scheme to defraud anyone of money or property, thereby failing to state the offense of mail fraud under § 1341. The United States now appeals, arguing that a scheme to obtain the salary and employment benefits of elected

office through election fraud satisfies the requirements of the mail fraud statute. We AFFIRM.1 I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Livingston Parish, Louisiana, operates under a home rule charter providing that its citizens elect a parish president for a four-year term. See LA. CONST. art. VI, § 5; LIVINGSTON PARISH HOME RULE CHARTER § 3-02. In 1999, Ratcliff was the incumbent Livingston Parish president and a candidate for reelection.

Candidates for public office in Louisiana must abide by the provisions of Louisiana’s Campaign Finance Disclosure Act (“CFDA”), LA. REV. STAT. ANN. §§ 18:1481-:1532. The CFDA prohibits any candidate for parishwide elective office, including the parish presidency, from receiving contributions, loans, or loan guarantees in excess of $2500 from any individual. Id. §§ 18:1483(7)(b), :1505.2(H). Candidates must also file campaign finance disclosure reports with the Louisiana Board of Ethics (the “Board” or “Board of Ethics”). Id. § 18:1484. The reports are to detail all campaign contributions, loans, loan guarantors, and expenditures. Id. § 18:1495.5.

According to the indictment, Ratcliff obtained several loans violative of the CFDA from September to November 1999. On September 23, 1999, Ratcliff obtained a $50,000 bank loan for the

1 Because we affirm the dismissal of Ratcliff’s indictment,

we do not address his cross-appeal, as it is moot.

purpose of financing his reelection campaign. Ratcliff had insufficient income and assets to qualify for the loan, and a local businessman with sufficient assets served as cosigner. One week later, on October 7, Ratcliff obtained another $50,000 loan with the same businessman as cosigner. The cosigner also assigned a $50,000 certificate of deposit as collateral.

On October 12, Ratcliff filed with the Board of Ethics a campaign finance disclosure report in which he disclosed the first loan and the businessman’s guarantee of that loan. On October 19, a staff member of the Board advised Ratcliff that the businessman’s guarantee possibly violated the CFDA. In response, Ratcliff informed the Board that he had instructed the bank to prepare new loan documents for his signature alone.

On October 22, Ratcliff obtained two new loans to pay off the loans that had been improperly guaranteed by the businessman. The indictment charges that the new loans were secured by a pledge of $99,000 in cash, supplied by one of Ratcliff’s wealthy supporters who had a financial interest in the transfer of a permit for operation of a landfill in Livingston Parish to Waste Management, Inc. (“Waste Management”). The transfer, which was allegedly supported by Ratcliff, was a major election issue. Ratcliff obtained another $50,000 loan on November 3, allegedly secured by a pledge of $55,000 in cash supplied by the same wealthy supporter. The indictment asserts that Ratcliff knew that his receipt of the cash for all three loans violated the

$2500 individual loan limitation and that he did not report it in his campaign finance disclosure reports.

Ratcliff was reelected as parish president on November 20.

During the course of the campaign, Ratcliff had contracted with a political consultant to help with his reelection bid, and by the time of the election, Ratcliff owed the consultant over $57,000. On November 22, a Waste Management lobbyist allegedly gave Ratcliff approximately $44,000 in cash for Ratcliff’s political consultant to hold as collateral until Ratcliff paid the consultant the money owed. The indictment alleges that Ratcliff knew that his use of the cash to secure a campaign debt violated the $2500 statutory limitation and that Ratcliff did not disclose the illegal loan in his campaign finance disclosure reports.

In addition to Ratcliff’s failure to report the amount and source of certain cash and loans he received, he allegedly misled the Board of Ethics during its investigation of his activities. Specifically, the indictment alleges that Ratcliff falsely represented that he had the creditworthiness to obtain the original loans on September 23 and October 7, 1999, without a cosigner and that the replacement loans were obtained on the basis of his independent creditworthiness. And despite requests from the Board for information on his use of collateral to secure the replacement loans, Ratcliff allegedly failed to disclose that the collateral was borrowed cash. The indictment also asserts that Ratcliff used the mails to submit a campaign finance

disclosure report and two letters concerning the ethics investigation to the Board of Ethics, as well as to receive the financial benefits of office.

After Ratcliff’s reelection as parish president, Ratcliff served in office from January 10, 2000, to January 12, 2004. During this term, Ratcliff allegedly received over $300,000 in salary and employment benefits from the parish.

On November 3, 2004, Ratcliff was charged by indictment with fourteen counts of mail fraud and one count of making a false statement to a financial institution.2 With regard to the mail fraud counts, the Government alleged that Ratcliff used the mails in a scheme to defraud Livingston Parish of the salary and employment benefits of elected office through misrepresentations he made to the Board of Ethics concerning the financing of his campaign. According to the Government, Ratcliff secured his reelection as parish president by obtaining the illegal funding and concealing his violations from the Board of Ethics.

On March 1, 2005, Ratcliff filed a motion to dismiss the mail fraud counts. After hearing oral argument on the motion, the district court granted the motion on May 23. The Government appealed.

II. DISCUSSION

2 The count involving a false statement to a financial

institution is not at issue in this appeal.

The Government contends that Ratcliff’s indictment sufficiently charged the offense of mail fraud because the salary and employment benefits of elected office constitute “money or property” under the mail fraud statute and because fraudulent job procurement can constitute mail fraud in the election context just as it can in the typical hiring context. Ratcliff counters that any misrepresentations he allegedly made to the Board of Ethics, which is a state entity, were unrelated to the salary and benefits paid as a matter of course by Livingston Parish, which is a distinct, local entity.

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