John Alexander Ryan v. United States

Appellant was convicted on six counts of a twenty-one count information, charging him with violation of 18 U.S. C.A. § 220. During the period in question, appellant was an officer and supervisor of the Real Estate Loan Development Administration of Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association in Los Angeles County. Appellant does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to justify the convictions. He makes two assignments of error:

A. The amount of the fees, commissions or gifts involved is substantial. The instruction about which the appellant complains reads, in part, as follows:

The appellant argues that the statute covers only those situations where the fee, gift or thing of value is received, or agreed upon, prior to or during the processing of the bank loan. He argues that the statute does not purport to embrace those situations where no fee, gift or thing of value is received until after the bank loan is made. To analyze appellant’s contention we simplify the statute by the elimination of certain words and phrases to read thus:

Clearly, the statute contemplates at least four situations where a bank officer would be violating the statute where he received a…