United States v. Schreiber
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
458 Fed. Appx. 672 (2011)
Bonnie Schreiber (defendant) continued certifying her eligibility for federal disability benefits and receiving payments even after regaining the ability to work, while secretly maintaining an active lifestyle including hunting, fishing, boating, and volunteer firefighter training, which she disclosed to her own doctors and therapists but instructed a neighbor to deny knowing about if asked. Schreiber was convicted of mail and wire fraud and theft of federal funds, and she appealed, arguing her own testimony that she never intended to defraud anyone or knew she was committing a crime should have defeated the circumstantial evidence against her.
Whether circumstantial evidence of a defendant's active, physically demanding lifestyle, combined with her instruction to a neighbor to conceal that lifestyle, is sufficient to prove fraudulent intent and knowledge for disability-benefits fraud despite the defendant's own testimony denying such intent.