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In the Courts
Unscrupulous Negotiation Tactics Not Fraud
On April 8, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed the conviction and ordered the acquittal of David Weimert, a former executive at AnchorBank, on five counts of wire fraud related to a real estate deal he negotiated in 2009. United States v. Weimert, 2016 WL 1395180 (7th Cir. 2016). In a 2-1 decision, the court held that Weimert's misleading stance in facilitating a real estate sale between his employer and a third party amounted to a standard negotiating tactic, not criminal fraud. In ordering Mr. Weimert's acquittal, the court set a high bar for what behavior amounts to fraud during negotiations.
Weimert served as a vice president of AnchorBank, a federal savings bank headquartered in Wisconsin, and as the President of Investment Directions, Inc., a real estate development firm. Both companies were owned by Anchor BanCorp Wisconsin, Inc. (ABCW), a publicly traded holding company. In late 2008, in order to raise money, the president of ABCW instructed Weimert to sell IDI's 50% interest in a Texas real estate development known as Chandler Creek for a minimum price of $6 million. Id. at 7.
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