United States v. Bloom, 343

• Citation: 237 F.2d 158
• Decision Date: 11 September 1956
• Docket Number: Docket 24040.,No. 343,343
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Roy M. BLOOM, Philip Polishook, Roy M. Bloom, Inc. and K. Polishook & Son Corp., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

237 F.2d 158 (1956)

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Roy M. BLOOM, Philip Polishook, Roy M. Bloom, Inc. and K. Polishook & Son Corp., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 343, Docket 24040.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued May 15, 1956.

Decided September 11, 1956.

Goldstein, Judd & Gurfein, New York City (Murray I. Gurfein, Orrin G. Judd, Robert J. Haft, New York City, of counsel), for Philip Polishook and K. Polishook & Son Corp.

Henry G. Singer, Brooklyn, N. Y. (Harry Silver, New York City, on the brief), for Roy M. Bloom and Roy M. Bloom, Inc.

Leonard P. Moore, U. S. Atty., E. D. New York, Brooklyn, N. Y. (Howard B. Gliedman, Frances T. Wolff, Morton J. Schlossberg, Asst. U. S. Attys., Brooklyn, N. Y., of counsel), for appellee.

Before MEDINA, LUMBARD and WATERMAN, Circuit Judges.

WATERMAN, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from convictions for using the mails to defraud. Count I of the four count indictment charged Roy M. Bloom, Roy M. Bloom, Inc., Philip Polishook, and K. Polishook & Son Corp. with conspiring in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 with Murray Kraut (named as a co-conspirator but not indicted) to engage by use of the mails in a fraudulent "count the diamonds" prize winning contest, entitled "Diamond Puzzle." Counts II, III, and IV charged Bloom individually with causing the "contest" circulars to be mailed to three specific addresses in violation of 18 U. S.C. § 1341. All defendants were convicted on Count I; and Bloom was convicted on Counts II, III, and IV, in which he was the sole defendant. The individual defendants were sentenced to imprisonment for a period of 18 months, and the corporate defendants were each fined $7,500.¹

Bloom was engaged in the business of direct mail selling of merchandise for various manufacturers; Polishook was engaged in the manufacture and sale of diamond rings and other jewelry. In 1954, having learned of the existence and success of various diamond promotion schemes, Polishook and Bloom, taking certain features from other plans and adding some original ideas, devised their own promotion. Bloom was to benefit by the sale to retail credit jewelers of the materials used in the plan, while Polishook was to profit by the sale of special trays of diamond jewelry designed to accompany the promotion. Defendants concede that they devised the plan, wrote the circulars, letters, and other materials used in the promotion, and sold the scheme to Murray Kraut, the co-conspirator mentioned in the indictment, who was a retail credit jeweler in New York City doing business as Post Jewelers. It is also conceded that the specific mailings mentioned in the indictment were made pursuant to the sale of the diamond promotion scheme to Kraut. Thus the only issue in the case was whether the plan was a fraudulent scheme under 18 U.S.C. § 1341.

The salient features of the diamond promotion scheme devised by Bloom and Polishook were as follows: Retail credit jewelers purchasing the promotion were supplied with circulars to be mailed to their customers and others in their area inviting their participation in a "diamond counting contest." All the contestant was asked to do was to count the diamonds appearing in pictures of jewelry in the circular, jot down the total count arrived at and his name and address on an attached reply card, and place the reply card in the mail. The circular offered diamond rings of specified values as 1st, 2d and 3d prizes. The promise to award, and the actual awarding of, these prizes is not involved in this prosecution. In addition to the first three prizes, contestants were to be awarded "merit prizes" consisting of "diamonds valued at $50." The circular stated that there were "no strings of any kind," that there was "absolutely no merchandise to buy," and that the purpose of the contest was "to promote the love and appreciation of precious diamonds."

The merit prizes of diamonds valued at $50 were the crux of both the promotion and the prosecution. Although the scheme purported to be a "contest," actually everyone who participated (except the first three winners) was intended to receive and did receive a congratulatory letter informing him that he was "one of a group who has won a fourth prize in our `Count-the-Diamonds' Contest. The award is a beautiful $50 diamond." The award diamond, represented to have a value of $50, was to be a four or five point cut diamond (four or five one-hundredths of a carat), which Polishook offered and sold to the retailers at a wholesale price of $4 per diamond. The letters specified a date on which the "contestant" could receive his prize award and informed the contestant that a photographer would be at the store at that time to photograph the presentation.

The aim of the promotion, outlined in detail in an elaborate set of instructions provided store personnel as part of the sale of the promotion scheme and materials, was to transform these contestants into customers when they showed up to claim their merit award diamond. This purpose could perhaps be inferred by a careful reader from the contest circular and congratulatory letter, both of which plainly stated that no loose diamonds were to be handed out: "This brilliant diamond must be set in a setting of your choice, or in any jewelry you may own in gold or platinum. A small charge for the labor involved."² Clearly, the "winner" would be required at the very least to purchase a setting or bring one of his own.

The hoped-for transformation from contestant to customer was planned in the following manner: When the contestant entered the store he was to be enthusiastically greeted by a salesman, congratulated for winning a $50 diamond, and ushered into a rear room to have his photograph taken. Then the contestant was to be asked whether he had brought a gold or platinum setting with him. Ordinarily the answer would be "No," and the salesman would then show the contestant diamond rings, priced at $79.50, in which "the diamond he had won" or a "similar diamond" was mounted. These rings were to contain a four or five point diamond, and were to be obtained from the defendants at a wholesale price of $14 per ring³ or from other suppliers. The contestant was then informed that his merit prize entitled him to a $50 credit on this ring, or on any other higher priced diamond merchandise in the store. In order to prevent the use of this credit on low-priced diamond merchandise, the retailer was to display only rings and jewelry priced at $79.50 or more.

While it was hoped that all "contestants" would purchase rings priced at $79.50 or more, the instructions envisioned two other possibilities and detailed the manner in which these other situations should be handled. If a person brought his own mounting, and could not be persuaded to trade it in for an additional credit on a new ring, the jeweler was to set a loose four-point diamond in the mounting for a charge of $6. If a person insisted upon obtaining the merit prize diamond in a loose form — contrary to the requirement, stated in the contest circular and congratulatory letter, that the diamond be set in a mounting — the retailer was to avoid trouble by giving this contestant a loose diamond.

Each customer who purchased a ring was also to receive a "Trade-In Certificate" from the retailer entitling the customer to return the ring at any time in the future and receive a credit in the amount of its full marked price against any higher priced merchandise. For example, a customer purchasing for $29.50 a ring priced at $79.50 was to receive a trade-in certificate for $79.50. Similarly, a person supplying his own mounting was to receive a $50 credit for the future purchase of any higher priced merchandise.

The Government evidence established, and defendants concede, that this promotion scheme was carried out by Kraut, the retail credit jeweler named as co-conspirator in the indictment, in accordance with defendants' plan and instructions. Government witnesses testified that they returned reply cards to Kraut's jewelry store with both accurate and arbitrary diamond counts; that they received letters congratulating them on winning merit prizes of $50 diamonds; that they went to Kraut's jewelry store where they were shown $79.50 diamond rings in which "their diamond" or a "similar one" had been mounted; and that they paid $29.50 for such rings, also receiving a trade-in certificate in the amount of $79.50. One Government witness brought an old mounting to Kraut's store; a loose four point diamond was set in this mounting at a cost of $9.75. None of the Government witnesses asked for, nor were they given, loose diamonds.

The alleged errors raised by this appeal fall into three categories: (1) whether the evidence of fraud was sufficient to justify the court's denial of a motion for a directed verdict of acquittal, and to sustain the conviction; (2) whether defendants were unfairly restricted on the issue of value by alleged errors in the admission and exclusion of evidence, and whether the charge to the jury on this issue was prejudicial; and (3) whether defendants were prejudiced with respect to their defense that they were acting in good faith by alleged errors in the exclusion of evidence and in the charge.

We think that the evidence was sufficient to support the courts denial of a motion for acquittal and to require the submission of the case to the jury. Although the convictions necessarily rested on opinion evidence of value and inferences of fraudulent intent, there was ample evidence to go to the jury and from which the jury could conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that defendants had knowingly and fraudulently misrepresented the value of the "$50 diamonds" and the "$79.50 diamond rings." Defendants argue that the promotion scheme cannot be considered fraudulent because the diamonds were being given away for nothing, because the purchasers of the diamond rings received value for their money, and...