unauthorized use

In December 1948, Morissette went hunting on a large tract of land in Michigan that the Government had used as a practice bombing range for the Air Force. Spent bomb casings from the range had been dumped into heaps and left exposed to the weather for four years or more. Morissette collected three tons of the casings, flattened them at a nearby farm, and sold them for eighty-four dollars. Morissette worked as a fruit stand operator in the summer and as a trucker and scrap iron collector in the winter. He was an honorably discharged veteran of World War II who had a good reputation among his neighbors. He loaded the casings onto his truck and transported them in broad daylight without any effort to conceal what he was doing. When authorities began an investigation, Morissette voluntarily and candidly told them the whole story, explaining that he believed the casings were abandoned and that he had no intention of stealing them. He was indicted for unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly stealing and converting property of the United States valued at eighty-four dollars in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 641. At trial, the District Court refused to permit Morissette to show that he thought the property was abandoned or to argue that he lacked criminal intent. The court instructed the jury that if it believed the government testimony, Morissette was guilty, and the jury convicted him. The court sentenced him to two months in prison or a fine of two hundred dollars. The Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.

During the period when twenty-two illicit stills operated near Utica, New York, respondents Joseph Falcone and Salvatore Falcone, sugar jobbers, sold sugar to wholesale grocers who resold some to distillers. Respondent Alberico, a member of a wholesale grocery firm, sold sugar and five-gallon cans, including sales to an unconvicted distiller named Morreale. Respondents Nicholas Nole and John Nole distributed yeast, with wrappers from their products found at several still sites. The five respondents were indicted with sixty-three others in the Northern District of New York on charges of conspiring to violate the revenue laws by operating the stills. After trial, the jury convicted the respondents along with sixteen still operators. The government introduced evidence of increased purchase volumes, specific sales, and isolated contacts such as conversations at the Venezia Restaurant and deliveries of yeast. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed the convictions of the five respondents. It determined that the proof showed at most knowledge that materials would reach distillers but did not establish awareness of any conspiracy. The Supreme Court granted certiorari because of a claimed conflict with rulings in other circuits. To establish knowledge, the government pointed to items like fifty-five cardboard cartons stenciled with Alberico's firm name found at one distiller's premises and yeast containers at other stills, along with the fact that some respondents had been seen speaking with convicted distillers.

In the 1970s petitioners James E. Gray, a former Kentucky public official, and Charles J. McNally, a private individual, along with Howard P. "Sonny" Hunt, participated in arrangements involving the Commonwealth's insurance contracts. After Democrat Julian Carroll was elected Governor in 1974, Hunt became chairman of the state Democratic Party and obtained de facto control over selecting the insurance agencies from which Kentucky would purchase its policies. In 1975 the Wombwell Insurance Company agreed with Hunt that, in exchange for continuing as the Commonwealth's agent for a workmen's compensation policy, it would share commissions exceeding $50,000 a year with other agencies designated by Hunt. Between 1975 and 1979 Wombwell funneled $851,000 in commissions to 21 agencies specified by Hunt, including Seton Investments, Inc., a company controlled by Hunt and Gray and nominally owned and operated by McNally, which received approximately $200,000. Gray served as Secretary of Public Protection and Regulation from 1976 to 1978 and as Secretary of the Governor's Cabinet from 1977 to 1979. Prior to his 1976 appointment, Hunt and Gray had established Seton for the purpose of receiving the commission payments, which were used to benefit Gray and Hunt. Pursuant to Hunt's direction, Wombwell also made payments through the Snodgrass Insurance Agency that ultimately went to McNally. Hunt later pleaded guilty to mail and tax fraud charges and received a three-year prison sentence. Petitioners were charged with one count of conspiracy and seven counts of mail fraud; six of the mail fraud counts were dismissed before trial. The remaining mail fraud count was based on the mailing of a commission check to Wombwell by the insurance company that had secured coverage for the State. It alleged that petitioners had devised a scheme to defraud the citizens and government of Kentucky of their right to have the Commonwealth's affairs conducted honestly. The count also charged that petitioners sought to obtain money and other things of value by means of false pretenses and the concealment of material facts. The conspiracy count alleged that petitioners had conspired to violate the mail fraud statute through that scheme. It further alleged that they had conspired to defraud the United States by obstructing the collection of federal taxes. After trial in the District Court the jury convicted petitioners on both the mail fraud and conspiracy counts, and the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the convictions in 1986. The Supreme Court granted certiorari in 1986.

Ignacio Flores-Figueroa, a citizen of Mexico, sought employment in the United States in 2000 by providing his employer a false name, birth date, and Social Security number along with a counterfeit alien registration card. The Social Security number and the number on the alien registration card were not those of any real person. In 2006 Flores presented his employer with new counterfeit Social Security and alien registration cards that used his real name, but the numbers on both cards were in fact numbers assigned to other people. Flores’ employer reported the request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Customs discovered that the numbers on the new documents belonged to other people. The United States charged Flores with entering the United States without inspection under 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a), misusing immigration documents under 18 U.S.C. § 1546(a), and aggravated identity theft under 18 U.S.C. § 1028A(a)(1). Flores moved for a judgment of acquittal on the aggravated identity theft counts, claiming the Government could not prove he knew the numbers belonged to other people. The District Court accepted the Government’s argument that such knowledge was unnecessary. After a bench trial the District Court found Flores guilty of the predicate crimes and aggravated identity theft. The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld that determination in 274 Fed. Appx. 501 (CA8 2008) (per curiam). The Supreme Court granted certiorari to consider the knowledge issue in light of disagreement among the circuits.