Arthur v. Donaldson v. United States

Appellant was indicted for violating the fraud provisions of Section 17(a) (1) of the Securities Act of 1933, 15 U.S.C.A. § 77q(a)(1), the mail fraud statute, 18 U.S.C.A. § 1341 , and for conspiring to commit these crimes in violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 371 . Count V of the indictment was dismissed because of an error in typography. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on counts I, II, III, IV, VI, VII, VIII and IX. Appellant was acquitted as to Count X, the conspiracy charge.

Named with appellant in the indictment was C. A. Donaldson, father of appellant, who died before the trial. The indictment charged, in substance, that appellant and C. A. Donaldson, devised a scheme and artifice to defraud in the sale of preferred stock of Billings Holding Corporation and of subscriptions for health, accident and hospitalization insurance policies to be issued by Montana Mutual Health and Accident Company. The testimony of the investor witnesses conflicted with the testimony of appellant, and the jury returned a verdict against appellant, except for the conspiracy count.

On this appeal, appellant urges four points. The first point is that the trial court abused its discretion by admission…