The Fourth Count of the indictment charged: "that Union Electric Company of Missouri is a corporation organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Missouri and at one time was known as and called Union Electric Light and Power Company; that on or about the 29th day of May, 1937, the name of said corporation was duly changed from Union Electric Light and Power Company to Union Electric Company of Missouri, and hereinafter in the several counts of this indictment said corporation at all times will be referred to as Union Electric Company of Missouri; that heretofore and on or about the 7th day of June, A. D. 1939, an order was duly made at a regular session of the Securities and Exchange Commission held at its offices in the City of Washington, in the District of Columbia, authorizing and instituting an investigation pursuant to sections 19(a) and 20(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 15 U.S.C.A. §§ 77s(a), 77t(a), Section 21(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 15 U.S. C.A. § 78u(a), and Sections 18(a) and (b) of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 15 U.S.C.A. § 79r(a, b), into certain acts and practices and the business and financial condition of the said Union Electric Company of Missouri, its subsidiary companies, and the St. Louis County Gas Company, said Union Electric Company of Missouri at that time having securities registered under the Securities Act of 1933, having registered securities on a national securities exchange under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and being a holding company within the meaning of the said Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 and a subsidiary company of The North American Company, a registered holding company within the meaning of said Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935; that during all of the period of time from January 1, 1930 until on or about May 15, 1939, said defendant, Frank J. Boehm, was Vice-President and a director of said Union Electric Company of Missouri; that in said order said investigation was directed to be for the purposes, among others,
"of determining whether said Union Electric Company had violated or was about to violate Section 24 of the Securities Act of 1933 15 U.S.C.A. § 77x,
"of determining whether said Union Electric Company of Missouri had violated or was about to violate Section 32(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 15 U.S. C.A. § 78ff(a),
"of aiding in prescribing rules and regulations pursuant to Sections 7, 10(b), and 19(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 15 U. S.C.A. §§ 77g, 77j(b), 77s(a), Sections 12 and 13 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 15 U.S.C.A. §§ 78l, 78m, and Sections 3(b), 6(b), 7, 12, 13, 15, 17(c), and 20(a) of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 15 U.S.C.A. §§ 79c(b), 79f(b), 79g, 79l, 79m, 79o, 79q(c), 79t(a),
"of securing information to serve as a basis for recommending further legislation concerning any matters to which said Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 relates, and
"of determining whether said Union Electric Company of Missouri had violated or was about to violate Sections 12(h) and 29 of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 15 U.S.C.A. §§ 79l(h), 79z — 3;
"that said order of said Securities and Exchange Commission designated Paul J. Cotter and Harry C. Coles, Jr., among others, as officers of said Commission to administer oaths and affirmations, subpoena witnesses, compel their attendance, take evidence in said investigation, and to perform all other duties in connection therewith authorized by law.
"That thereafter the said investigation duly authorized and instituted by the said Securities and Exchange Commission was conducted in the City of St. Louis, State and Eastern District of Missouri, in the Eastern Division of said District, and within the jurisdiction of this Court, by said Securities and Exchange Commission acting through competent officers thereof who were duly designated as aforesaid, and said Commission then and there had full and competent power and jurisdiction to conduct said investigation; that thereupon the facts and circumstances surrounding
"the padding of officers' and employees' expense accounts submitted to and paid by said Union Electric Company of Missouri or its subsidiary companies, and the inclusion of therein of sums not actually expended for or on behalf of said companies, or expended for purposes other than those designated upon said expense accounts,
"the securing of sums of money in cash by officers of said Union Electric Company of Missouri or its subsidiary companies by means of secret rebates and kick backs from persons, firms, and corporations with whom said Union Electric Company of Missouri and its subsidiary companies dealt.
"the creation and maintenance by officers of said Union Electric Company or its subsidiary companies of a sum of money in cash or of a slush fund,
"the making of political contributions by or on behalf of said Union Electric Company of Missouri or its subsidiary companies,
"the connection of said defendant, Frank J. Boehm, with said transactions and practices, and
"the accuracy of registration statements or financial statements filed by said Union Electric Company of Missouri and said The North American Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, pursuant to the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935,
"among other matters, became and were then and there material matters in said investigation.
"That thereafter during the course of said investigation, and on or about the 10th day of July, A. D. 1939, in the City of St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, and within the jurisdiction of this Court, Frank J. Boehm, the defendant herein, duly appeared as a witness in said investigation before the said Harry C. Coles, Jr., a competent officer of said Securities and Exchange Commission, and then and there took an oath administered to him by said officer that all of the testimony which he would give in said investigation would be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; that said Harry C. Coles, Jr., the aforesaid officer, was then and there a competent person to administer said oath and that said investigation by said Securities and Exchange Commission was a case in which a law of the United States authorized an oath to be administered;
"That on or about the said 10th day of July, 1939, Frank J. Boehm, the defendant herein, being then and there under oath as aforesaid, unlawfully, wilfully, knowingly, feloniously, and contrary to said oath did falsely testify to material matters in said investigation which he did not believe to be true, in substance and effect, as follows:
"(a) That he did not pad his own expense accounts and that the expense accounts submitted by him to the Union Electric Company of Missouri corresponded exactly with what his expenses were, as nearly as he could make them;
"(b) That he took all of the trips that were listed on his expense vouchers submitted to said Union Electric Company of Missouri for the period from 1933 to the end of 1938;
"(c) That a fund in cash of any sort had never been maintained by the said Union Electric Company of Missouri for political or other purposes; that any cash in his office, or on his person, or in his safe was his personal fund;
"(d) That no money was obtained by Union Electric Company of Missouri or its subsidiary companies, or officers or employees thereof, by means of kick backs or rebates from attorneys employed by said companies;
"That on the contrary it was the truth and fact, and said defendant, Frank J. Boehm, then and there well knew and believed:
"(a) and (b) That expense accounts submitted by him to said Union Electric Company of Missouri and paid by said company during the period from 1933 to the end of 1938 had been and were padded, and that trips listed on his expense vouchers as having been made by him during said period of time had not in fact been made by him;
"(c) That a large fund in cash was maintained by said Union Electric Company of Missouri for political and other purposes, said fund being maintained in the possession and...
