In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit No. 17‐3642 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff‐Appellee, v. WILLIAM D. CORRIGAN, Defendant‐Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 13 CR 915 — Robert M. Dow, Jr., Judge. ARGUED OCTOBER 24, 2018 — DECIDED JANUARY 3, 2019 Before BAUER, MANION, and BRENNAN, Circuit Judges. BAUER, Circuit Judge. Following a bench trial, defendant William D. Corrigan (“Corrigan”) was found guilty of four counts of wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343. Corrigan appeals his conviction, arguing that the indictment failed to properly set out a scheme for wire fraud, and the evidence at trial was insufficient to sustain a conviction. Corrigan also 2 No. 17‐3642 contends that the district court erred when it ordered restitu‐ tion in the full amount of the investments. We disagree, and for the following reasons, we affirm. I. BACKGROUND Corrigan served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Embedded Control Systems (“ECS”), a company that developed a process for replacing copper wiring in airplanes with fiber optics. Beginning in 2007, ECS began soliciting capital from various investment groups. Among the investors were Jason Neilitz who purchased $125,000 worth of ECS stock, and Rawah Partners which purchased $350,000 worth of stock. By June 2008, Corrigan had negotiated a prospective sale of ECS to a third party. However, due to the worldwide financial downturn the sale fell through. Shortly thereafter, through a Board resolution, ECS authorized Corrigan to manage ECS in whatever capacity he saw fit. At the same time, Corrigan was negotiating a sale to another third party when ECS began to suffer from cash flow problems. ECS had difficulty paying its expenses and its officers’ compensation. It closed its bank account with Chase Bank because it was frequently overdrawn, and opened a new account with LaSalle Bank. This account excluded the Vice President of Business Development, A.J. Yarmine, from its signatories. Through 2008, ECS employees received health insurance from the company but ECS fell behind on the pay‐ ment for the insurance policy in 2008, making the last payment to United Healthcare in November 2008. United Healthcare cancelled the policy in January 2009, due to non‐payment. No. 17‐3642 3 By March 2009, Corrigan had begun soliciting Jason Neilitz and Rawah Partners for additional investments announcing that ECS was close to closing a sale but needed additional funds to cover ECS’s healthcare insurance premiums. On March 22, 2009, and again on April 22, 2009, Corrigan emailed Jason Neilitz stating that the company was close to being dropped by its health insurance provider and that such a result would be “catastrophic” to its employees and the pending sale. Based on Corrigan’s representations, Neilitz agreed to pur‐ chase an additional $50,000 worth of ECS stock. Per Corrigan’s instructions Neilitz wired $50,000 to the specified account which, unbeknownst to Neilitz, was Corrigan’s personal account. At the same time that Corrigan was soliciting additional capital from Neilitz, he ...
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