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Evasion of Foreign Tax Can Be Mail Fraud

By Stuart E. Abrams and Jennifer Frankel
June 27, 2005

The Supreme Court has decided that the Federal mail and wire fraud statutes can be used in prosecutions involving schemes to defraud a foreign government of tax revenue. The April 26 decision, written by Justice Thomas, expansively interpreted the words of 18 U.S.C. '' 1341 and 1343 and narrowly interpreted the common law “revenue rule,” which some courts had viewed as limiting the reach of these statutes in cases involving foreign tax evasion. Pasquantino v. United States, 125 S.Ct. 1766 (2005).

Split in the Circuits

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