United States v. Walters
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
997 F.2d 1219 (1993)
Norby Walters (defendant), a sports agent, secretly signed college athletes to representation contracts, knowing NCAA rules barred agent representation for eligible amateurs. The athletes had certified their amateur eligibility to their universities, which then mailed those eligibility forms to athletic conferences without Walters's knowledge. Walters was convicted of federal mail fraud based on those mailings and appealed, arguing the mailing played no essential role in his scheme.
Whether the federal mail fraud statute is violated if the use of the mails is not an essential ingredient of the defendant's scheme and the prosecution fails to show the mailing was foreseeable.