United States Tenth Circuit

Defendants' convictions, arising from an alleged "far-reaching scheme to milk Kansas' largest public utility for all they could through a pattern of fraud and deceit," are reversed where the government's attempt to prove defendants' concealment from the SEC of their personal use of corporate aircraft was flawed because the government produced no evidence that defendants failed to comply with SEC regulations governing the reporting of such personal use, and the jury was never instructed regarding the SEC's reporting requirements.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/05/2007
• Published 01/08/2007

Judges

• HARTZ, Circuit Judge., Before HARTZ, Circuit Judge, McWILLIAMS, Senior Circuit Judge, and McCONNELL, Circuit Judge.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Seth P. Waxman, Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr, LLP, Washington, DC, for Defendant-Appellant Douglas T. Lake, Steven Alan Reiss, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, New York, New York, for Defendant-Appellant David C. Wittig, (Edward C. DuMont, Theodore D. Chuang, Demian S. Ahn, Michael P. Spence, Daniel S. Volchok, Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr, Washington, DC, on the brief for Defendant-Appellant Douglas T. Lake, and Gregory S. Coleman, Lisa R. Eskow, and Edward C. Dawson, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, Austin, Texas, on the brief for Defendant-Appellant David C. Wittig)., Richard L. Hathaway, Assistant United States Attorney (Eric F. Melgren, United States Attorney, Christine E. Kenney, Assistant United States Attorney, with him on the brief), Topeka, Kansas, for Plaintiff-Appellee.