In the Courts

On Dec. 26, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued its opinion in United States v. Phillips, —F.3d.—, 2012 WL 6700220 (2012), in which the defendant, Mark Phillips, had appealed his conviction on four counts of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud, and two counts of money laundering. In its cross-appeal, the Government had argued that that the district court erred in rejecting its application to enter a $100,000 in personam forfeiture judgment against the defendant. The Ninth Circuit's decision is notable in that it clarifies the limited scope of the mail fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. ' 1341, as well as the applicability of forfeiture even in cases where a defendant has made full restitution to his/her victims.

The case involved Mark Phillips, the former CEO of MOD Systems, Inc. (MOD), who stole money from MOD over the course of approximately a year and used the money to buy expensive Breguet watches, invest in a startup company, and to partially pay off a $2.3 million condominium in Seattle. Phillips relied on the assistance of his girlfriend, Jan Wallace, to successfully execute this scheme. Phillips, 2012 WL 6700220 at 1.