The Eleventh Circuit’s opinion in U.S. v. Takhalov will be one of the more talked of the season. Amid colorful references galore, the court “tossed the convictions of nightclub operators accused of using enticing ‘bar girls’ to lure drunken customers to pay tens of thousands of dollars for overpriced drinks.” Judge Thupar begins: “The wire-fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1343 does not enact as federal law the Ninth Commandment given to Moses on Sinai. For § 1343 forbids only schemes to defraud, not schemes to do other wicked things, e.g., schemes to lie, trick, or otherwise deceive.” Plus footnote 9, which says that a particular inference “hardly requires Holmesian feats of deduction (Sherlock or Oliver Wendell: either Holmes will do here.)” [ABA Journal, Miami Herald, Daily Business Review]
8 Comments
Love the ” Casablanca Defense” reference
This highlights the risk of shooting for the moon when asking for jury instructions.
Regardless of the state of the current law… Should the activities engaged in by the bar be illegal? Or should we just go with caveat emptor and a fool and his money are soon parted? And how is this different from what many strip clubs do? I mean, come on, the women in both cases are basically putting their assets up for bidding. But, of course, when you go to the strip club, you assume that the women are on the owners’ payrolls. I am not sure that makes much of a difference.
>when you go to the strip club, you assume that the women are on the owners’ payrolls
We need to clarify the use of “you” here.
A valid point. Perhaps the trouble was with the tense, not the word.
how about: “if you, by chance, through no fault of your own, were to find yourself in a strip club, and you thought about economic theories, which you would always do should you have mistakenly entered such an institution….
” Should the activities engaged in by the bar be illegal?”
I am inclined to say no, and even if the answer is yes, it shouldn’t be an issue for the Feds.
“But, of course, when you go to the strip club, you assume that the women are on the owners’ payrolls. I am not sure that makes much of a difference.”
Actually, from what I have read, they mostly work as independent/sub contractors.
This allows the women to circulate from club to club. The women get more exposure and the clubs get to not have the same dancers constantly.
Is this definately a strip club? I was imagining a regular bar. Why would these guys be thinking the Russian tourists would want to go to a strip bar?