United States v. David C. Henny

Defendant Henny, President and General Manager of the Whidbey Telephone Company, appeals from a judgment of conviction, following a jury trial, of a number of counts of wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343 and aiding and abetting under 18 U.S.C. § 2 . He received sentences of three years on each count, to run concurrently, and a fine of $1,000 on each of ten counts. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

Whidbey Telephone Company (“Whidbey”) is an independent company serving approximately 2,700 subscribers on two islands in Puget Sound, Washington. It is regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) (interstate) and the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (“WUTC”) (intrastate). The toll (long distance) facilities of Whidbey interconnect at Everett, Washington, with the General Telephone Company of the Northwest (“General”), which interconnects with Pacific Northwest Bell (“Bell”) at Seattle. Since it was necessary for the lines of the various telephone companies to interconnect to provide service to all subscribers, the toll costs and revenues for toll calls were usually divided among the companies on the basis of toll settlement or…