United States v. Siegel
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
717 F.2d 9 (1983)
Siegel and Abrams, officers and directors of a publicly held toy company (defendants), generated over $100,000 in undisclosed cash from marked-down merchandise sales, and evidence showed they personally collected the proceeds, that about $31,000 went toward illicit payoffs to union officials, and that the remaining funds were unaccounted for in any legitimate corporate purpose. The defendants were convicted of wire fraud for breaching their fiduciary duty to disclose material information to shareholders, and they appealed, arguing the evidence showed only poor recordkeeping rather than actual self-enrichment.
Whether corporate officers' undisclosed diversion of company cash proceeds, shown mainly through their personal handling of the funds and a portion's confirmed use for bribery, is sufficient circumstantial evidence of self-enrichment to support a wire fraud conviction based on breach of fiduciary duty.