In United States v. Tamaz Pasternak, No. 23-6316-cr, the Second Circuit (Parker, Robinson, Oliver (D. Conn.)) affirmed the defendant’s wire fraud convictions despite a concededly erroneous jury instruction.
The charges arose from a purported scheme to conceal the “salvage” histories of used cars—histories of purchase by insurance companies after they’ve been damaged. Pasternak, a used-car dealer, often sold these cars at a significant discount—so one of the government’s theories of wire fraud centered on depriving customers of information about the cars, not depriving them of money. After a jury convicted Pasternak of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit the same, Pasternak alleged two instructional errors on appeal. First, Pasternak challenged a right-to-control instruction that was held invalid in Ciminelli v. United States, 598 U.S. 306 (2023). Second, Pasternak argued that the district court should have required the jury to find that the fraudulent scheme contemplated inflicting tangible economic harm. …