United States v. Outpost Development Company, United States of America v. Conrad L. Germain, United States of America v. Robert W. Kane

Conrad L. Germain, Robert W. Kane, and Outpost Development Company, a corporation, were tried before a jury and convicted of eighteen counts of mail fraud ( 18 U.S.C. § 1341 ). They appeal.

In 1972, Germain and Kane established Outpost Development Company to conduct a mail order business under the names of Lydia Feldman Methods and Brenda Hardy Research. The defendants operated the business with the help of one employee. They mailed interstate solicitations entitled “Want to Lose Weight?” The solicitations, written under the fictitious name Lydia Feldman, explained how Lydia had discovered in an occult writing a recipe for a diet tonic that converted “unburned calories into energy.”

The diet tonic was a mixture of ordinary fruit juices and was to be taken before meals or after meals, depending upon whether the dieter was following the “with meals” plan or the “mealless” plan. Lydia invited the reader to send her $5.95 for the recipe and promised a refund if the customer was not satisfied.

Testimony established that some persons sent the $5.95 but did not receive the diet tonic recipe, and that others requested, but did not receive, a refund. This was, of course, some evidence…