United States v. Press
| Decision Date | 11 August 1964 |
| Docket Number | No. 306,Docket 28621.,306 |
| Citation | 336 F.2d 1003 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Isidore PRESS, alias John Grady, T. C. Fry, Jr., alias Matthew Grady, Buy Rite Buyers Club, Inc., Factory Supply Co., Inc., Standard Distributors, Inc., and American Wholesalers, Inc., Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
Joseph F. Radigan, U. S. Atty., for District of Vermont (John H. Carnahan, Asst. U. S. Atty., Michael P. Epstein, Atty., Dept. of Justice, of counsel), for the United States.
Max Feigin, New York City, and Ryan, Smith & Carbine, Rutland, Vt., for Isidore Press and Buy Rite Buyers Club, Inc., Factory Supply Co., Inc., Standard Distributors, Inc., American Wholesalers, Inc. Bernard Burlakoff, Westbury, Long Island, N. Y., for T. C. Fry, Jr.
Before MOORE and FRIENDLY, Circuit Judges, and DIMOCK, District Judge.*
Isidore Press, T. C. Fry, Jr., Buy-Rite Buyers Club, Inc., Factory Supply Co., Inc., Standard Distributors, Inc. and American Wholesalers, Inc. appeal from judgments of conviction entered upon a jury verdict in the District Court for the District of Vermont. The individual appellants were found guilty of 24 counts under the Federal Mail Fraud Statute, 18 U.S.C.A. § 1341, and of one count of conspiracy, 18 U.S.C.A. § 371. The corporations were convicted on the conspiracy count. The indictment named, in addition to appellants, Lawrence Press, Selmajane Stuchell and William Stuchell. Defendant Lawrence Press was acquitted of the conspiracy charge and has not appealed from his conviction on the mail fraud counts. Selmajane and William Stuchell were acquitted on all counts.
Count 1 of the indictment charged that the individual defendants, while managing and operating the corporate defendants (October 1960 to the date of indictment, June 27, 1962), unlawfully devised a scheme and artifice to defraud by "obtaining money * * * from the class of persons to be defrauded by means of false, fraudulent and misleading pretenses, representations, and promises made by Buy-Rite Buyers Club, Inc., and the individual defendants, the defendants well knowing at the time that the pretenses, representations, and promises were false, fraudulent, and misleading when they were made." Count 1 cited with great particularity magazine advertisements, promotion literature and numerous other aspects of the alleged scheme which were repeated by reference in counts 2 through 77. Counts 1 through 77 charged the receipt of specific pieces of mail and telephone calls all in furtherance of a scheme to defraud in violation of 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 1341, 1342, or 1343. Count 78, which included the corporate defendants, was for conspiracy, and alleged as overt acts the specific transactions enumerated in counts 1 through 77. Fifty-three of the 78 counts, including those charging a violation of 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 1342 and 1343, were dropped by the Government; thus, there remained 24 substantive counts and one conspiracy count for the jury.
It is undisputed that appellants Press and Fry were the central figures in the appellant corporations. They were engaged in mail-order merchandising. For a yearly membership fee, solicited through volume mailings and magazine advertisements, appellants undertook to supply members with various purchasing benefits including catalogs from which merchandise might be selected at costs substantially below retail. Headquarters for these enterprises was in Lodi, New Jersey, and the warehouse was located in nearby Paterson. While the Government's case necessarily covered the overall operation of the appellant corporations, it centers on the facts surounding the business of Buy-Rite Buyers Club, Inc.
Appellants organized Buy-Rite, a Vermont corporation, in Bennington, Vermont in the latter months of 1960, ostensibly to take advantage of the absence of Fair Trade laws in Vermont. They leased a small office, took a post office box, hired three or four people (including the Stuchells) for clerical help and opened a bank account. Activities in Vermont were generally limited, however, to processing mail and forwarding it to New Jersey. Beginning in March and continuing until December of 1961, Buy-Rite conducted a campaign of magazine advertisements and bulk mailings of solicitation literature. During that period a total of 3,600,000 pieces of the basic promotion matter was mailed. All mailing was done in the New York City area, but the return addresses and letterheads gave the Bennington office.
The solicitation literature must be reviewed in some detail. It consisted of four items: a four page covering letter, a yellow "Factory Price List," a four page blue flyer and a two page combination membership application form and club member order blank. Each of the four items was an artfully drawn document trumpeting in flamboyant terms the merits of Buy-Rite membership. In the unlikely event that recipients had pored meticulously and critically through these enticing circulars they might well have been perplexed as to exactly what Buy-Rite would deliver for the seven dollar yearly fee.
The four page covering letter, signed by appellant Fry as "Matthew Grady, Membership Director," explained that "buying right" with Buy-Rite enabled one to select from a vast assortment of commodities at prices "25% BELOW wholesale resale quotations to retail dealers!" As "solid evidence" of the merits of Buy-Rite, the letter urged recipients to take advantage of the order blank and "Factory Price List"; Buy-Rite's references, which were said to include Dun & Bradstreet, "are the best," the letter continued, and they would affirm that Buy-Rite was a "bona fide organization" which dealt "reliably, promptly and honestly." The seven dollar yearly membership fee would provide five basic services:
"YOU WON'T LOSE A CENT WITH US IN ANY EVENT!" continued the letter, and
The factory price list contained about 600 products, many bearing well-known nationally advertised trade names. Retail, wholesale and "factory" prices were listed, but the products were available to Buy-Rite members at "factory" prices. Prospects were assured that "most orders are shipped complete from our own warehouse within 24 hours after receipt." The four-page blue brochure in the Buy-Rite material further developed the benefits set forth in Matthew Grady's covering letter. "A huge catalog" of over 700 pages was described as one of the many features included in the membership fee, and the prospect was asked: "How much more do you feel such a catalog is worth when you can buy substantially all its contents at factory or importers' prices?" The brochure also discussed the "Buy-Rite Blue Book Buyers Guide," the Buy-Rite consultation and quotation service and the $14.00 in credit certificates. The fourth item included in the solicitation package was the membership application form. Listed there among the numerous membership benefits was "an introduction to a unique Factory Buying Plan thru which the member can buy over 20,000 items. * * *" in addition to a "tremendous color catalog exceeding 700 pages. * * *" to be used through the Factory Plan.
Sometime after the new Buy-Rite member had parted with his seven dollar membership fee, he again received a letter from Matthew Grady (Fry). This letter stated that under separate cover the member could expect to receive, among other things, introductory literature to a "bona fide Factory Buying Club" and a wholesale catalog of around 700 pages from appellant Standard Distributors, Inc. Shortly, the situation became clear when the member received a letter from appellant Factory Supply Company, explaining that Buy-Rite had requested Factory Supply to forward a copy of its Factory Buying Plan. Because of their Buy-Rite membership, the fee for the Factory Buying Plan was reduced from $18.75 to $13.75. "Why should you join the Factory Buying Club?" the letter asked.
Buy-Rite members thus learned that the 20,000 items at factory or importers' quotations could be purchased only with the "Master Factory Price Index" obtained at the expense of joining another plan for $13.75.
That members were misled by the initial solicitation material was admitted by appellant Press, who testified that Buy-Rite members inquired as to when they would receive the 700 page catalog, "so they could buy the 20,000 items at factory cost," and that...
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