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Id. at 108. Because the indictment did not allege defendant’s misrepresentation had

“relevance to the object of the contract,” the Circuit held it was insufficient.

• U.S. v. Porat, 76 F.4th 213 (3d Cir. 2023)
(post-Ciminelli and 3d Cir. affirmance here)

The Third Circuit affirmed wire fraud conviction for defendant, the former
dean of the Fox Business School at Temple University, who submitted false data

to U.S. News and World Report to increase the school’s ranking. Though defendant
asserted the students received the “essential benefit of the bargain, an education”

and that the ranking is an intangible consideration in which students do not have
an “independent property interest,” id. at 220 (quotation marks omitted), the Circuit

reasoned that those rankings are part of the bargain.

The concurrence by Judge Krause explained that “[i]n contrast to fraudulent
inducements that deprive the victim of information immaterial to the transaction—

the purview of state tort laws, see Ciminelli, 143 S. Ct. at 1128—[defendant’s] lies
clearly were designed to—and did—convert members of the public into Fox [Business

School] applicants and, ultimately, Fox students, generating some $40 million in
additional tuition fees for the school over the course of the conspiracy.” Id. at 229-30.

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