Convicted Attorney Is “Actually Innocent.”

18 USC § 1346 states: “. . .the term ‘scheme or artifice to defraud’ includes a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services.” An attorney and trustee of private trusts pled guilty to honest services fraud after being accused of abusing his fiduciary obligations and position of trust through ambiguous loan arrangement which used trust funds as collateral and executing margin loans secured by trust assets. After serving almost four years in prison, Convicted Attorney sought habeas corpus relief, claiming his conviction and sentence were invalidated by the Supreme Court’s decision in Skilling v. United States (2010) 130 S.Ct. 2896, [177 L.Ed.2d 619], in which the high court declined to give an expanded interpretation of section 1346’s proscription. In the instant case, the Ninth Circuit remanded the matter to the district court after pointing out the Convicted Attorney stands convicted of an offense that is no longer criminal. United States of America v. Avery June 18, 2013) (Case No. 12-35209).