Bartholomew v. United States

• Decision Date: 05 April 1910
• Docket Number: 1,990.
• Citation: 177 F. 902
• Parties: BARTHOLOMEW v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

177 F. 902

BARTHOLOMEW v. UNITED STATES.

No. 1,990.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

April 5, 1910

Wm. L Day, for the United States.

Before SEVERENS, WARRINGTON, and KNAPPEN, Circuit Judges.

SEVERENS Circuit Judge.

The plaintiff in error, whom we will style the 'defendant,' was convicted in the District Court upon an indictment charging him with violating the provisions of section 5480 of the Revised Statutes (U.S. Comp. St. 1901, p 3696), concerning the use of the postal establishment of the United States for the promotions of schemes to defraud. The offense charged was that, having formed a scheme to defraud the Bankers' Money Order Association, a corporation doing business at New York, which scheme involved the use of the postal service of the United States, the defendant posted three certain letters at Galion, Ohio, addressed to the said money order association at New York.

There were three counts in the indictment. The first count charged that the defendant had formed the scheme on January 26, 1907 and posted the letter therein described on January 26, 1906, and the letter itself bears this last date, thus presenting an anachronism which is criticised by his counsel, who claims that the charge is of an impossibility. The scheme to defraud is thus set out:

It is first alleged in this count that the scheme to defraud was to be effected by the said Ellis Bartholomew opening and carrying on correspondence and communication with the said Bankers' Money Order Association, etc., by means of and through the post office establishment of the United States, 'so devising and intending to devise said scheme to defraud by means of the post office establishment of the United States, the use of said post office establishment being a part of said scheme to defraud,' and then proceeds as follows:

'The said Bankers' Money Order Association, a corporation, as aforesaid, was then a corporation, with its said place of business in the city of New York, engaged in the business of issuing and putting forth money orders which it issued through banks throughout the United States, the said money orders to be later redeemed by said association at its said office in New York, the said banks so issuing said money orders acting as agents of said association in the issuing and putting forth of said money orders; it being a part of the business plan of said Bankers' Money Order Association to supply to genuine and reputable banks and bankers throughout the United States forms of said money orders, the same to be validated at time of sale and issue by the signature of the banker or an officer of the bank of issue, the said banks and bankers becoming agents of said Bankers' Money Order Association under an agreement to remit, immediately after sale, to said Bankers' Money Order Association, money of the amount of orders so sold and issued, and it being a part also of the business of said association that money orders so issued to customers of said banks would later be redeemed by said association; said forms to be so furnished to banks and bankers as aforesaid, by said association without any money or other tangible security being given to said association guaranteeing the proper use of said blanks and the remittance of funds received from sale of money orders, the said association relying entirely on the business integrity of banks and bankers with whom agencies were established and to whom forms were furnished; and the said Ellis Bartholomew, then and there well knowing the plan of the said business of said Bankers' Money Order Association, planned and intended by his said scheme and artifice to defraud to obtain possession of a number of blank forms of the said Bankers' Money Order Association, used in the issuing of said money orders, and so having obtained said blank forms, he further planned and intended that he would use the same and issue them under the name of said pretended bank, the said American Exchange Bank of Galion, and cause said orders to appear as if they had been issued by a real and bona fide bank acting as an agent of said Bankers' Money Order Association, and the said Ellis Bartholomew further intended and planned that in issuing said money orders he would issue them for his own personal use and benefit, that is, he would issue them in the name of and to personal creditors of his own in payment of his personal obligations and also to personal agents of his own to the end that said agents might get said money orders cashed at various banks and there secure money thereon in an amount equal to each of said money orders, for the use and benefit of said Ellis Bartholomew; it being the plan of the said Ellis Bartholomew that he would so obtain said blank forms from said association by pretending that he would establish a bona fide bank at the city of Galion, Ohio, to be known as the American Exchange Bank, and by pretending that he was a bona fide agent and officer of said bank; he, the said Ellis Bartholomew, further intending never to remit to the said Bankers' Money Order Association, as said orders should be issued, an amount of money representing the amounts and values of said money orders, respectively, so to be issued under the name of said American Exchange Bank, at Galion, aforesaid, or approximating thereto, but

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