The following excerpt is from U.S. v. Stirling, 571 F.2d 708 (2nd Cir. 1978):
"(Appellants) confuse the scheme to defraud, which is the gist of the offense, with the means adopted to effectuate the scheme." A scheme to defraud may consist of numerous elements, no particular one of which need be proved if there is sufficient overall proof that the scheme exists. Appellants' reliance on United States v. Natelli is misplaced. In that case, the defendant was charged in a single count with violating the securities laws by making false statements in a proxy statement. Because the crime charged consisted of the making of such statements, the erroneous failure of the trial court to direct a verdict as to one of the alleged falsities, arising out of a separate state of facts, made the jury's verdict ambiguous and required a new trial. Here, the crime charged was the scheme to defraud, and the alleged false statements were merely means for carrying it into effect.
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