United States v. Anthony Barone

Anthony Barone appeals his convictions on one count of conspiracy and nine counts of uttering forged securities. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 371 , 2, 513(a). He claims, inter alia, that the government faded to prove the necessary interstate jurisdictional element of the offenses, and that his conduct therefore did not constitute a federal crime. We agree and reverse his convictions.

I.

The facts of this case revolve around a not particularly exciting or imaginative check-bouncing scheme which occurred in the Las Vegas area in December of 1990 and January of 1991, and could easily have been prosecuted in state court. The scheme targeted several businesses, usually casinos, for a few days at a time. The participants in the scheme cashed a number of checks at each targeted business. Although these checks purported to be payroll checks drawn on the accounts of various legitimate businesses, they were in fact drawn on closed accounts or accounts with insufficient funds. Many of the cheeks were falsely signed, and some were falsely endorsed. During the scheme, the participants fraudulently cashed over 130 checks, with values ranging from $200 to $916.84.

On June 30, 1992, a grand jury returned…