United States v. William James Swacker

Appellant William James Swacker was convicted in a jury trial for mail fraud, telephone fraud, conspiracy and aiding and abetting in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 , 1343, 371 and 2, respectively. He appeals the convictions, contending that:

We affirm the conviction.

I. BACKGROUND

The appellant was convicted for his alleged participation in a scheme in which fees were received to secure loan financing for businesses. The scheme involved a mortgage brokerage company, Mutual Investment Services (Mutual); a financing corporation, Security Guaranty Corporation (Security); and an investment trust company, Chase National Trust (Chase), which was owned by the appellant.

An individual, C. Rick Miles, seeking financing for his recreational condominium project, entered into a contract with Mutual. Under the contract, Mutual was to find financing for Miles in exchange for a fee of $9,000.00 in advance and $9,000.00 when the financing was actually acquired. Miles paid $8,000.00 of the advance payment.

To fulfill its part of the bargain, Mutual arranged for Security to issue a letter of credit to Miles for $300,000.00. The letter was to be used by Miles to obtain loans from commercial…