The Courts: Active Players in White-Collar Cases

In June, the Supreme Court unanimously held that Enron's former CEO Jeffrey Skilling did not commit “honest services” fraud, ruling that the statute under which he was convicted must be limited to bribery and kickback schemes to avoid constitutional concerns over vagueness. Skilling v. United States, 130 S. Ct. 2896 (2010). The defense bar was heartened by these restrictions on a statute that federal prosecutors have used aggressively for years against public officials and more recently against corporate officers. The decision should curtail prosecution of a variety of conduct that the government would otherwise seek to criminalize through the statute. In contrast, the courts are expanding the reach of other criminal statutes to encompass conduct previously regarded as outside their scope.