Case Explained: FinalOpinion in case# 25-2350

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Filed: 2026-06-15 The Seventh Circuit vacated the conspiracy convictions under 18 U.S.C. § 371 and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) convictions of Anne Pramaggiore and Michael F. McClain, while denying their requests for judgments of acquittal. The court held that the Supreme Court’s decision in *Snyder v. United States*, which limited 18 U.S.C. § 666 to quid pro quo bribery and excluded illegal gratuities, rendered two of the four objects of the charged conspiracy legally invalid. Because the jury returned a general verdict without specifying which object it relied upon, and because the evidence supporting the valid FCPA-based objects was not “coextensive” with the evidence for the now-invalid bribery objects, the court determined the error was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The court applied the standard from *Yates v. United States* and *Skilling v. United States*, ruling that when a jury may have relied on an invalid legal theory in a multi-object conspiracy, the conviction cannot stand unless it is clear the jury necessarily convicted on valid grounds alone. Regarding the FCPA convictions, the court vacated them because they were supported by a *Pinkerton* instruction allowing liability for co-conspirators’ acts. Since the underlying conspiracy was legally flawed due to the inclusion of invalid objects, the government failed to prove the existence of a valid conspiracy necessary to sustain *Pinkerton* liability. The court rejected the defendants’ argument that they were entitled to acquittal based on *Thompson v. United States*, noting that the jury instructions required a finding that records were “false” rather than merely “misleading,” and there was sufficient evidence in the record to support such a finding. The practical consequence is that the convictions are set aside, but the defendants are not entitled to acquittal. The government is permitted to retry Pramaggiore and McClain on the conspiracy and FCPA charges without relying on the invalid legal theories or the *Pinkerton* instruction based on an invalid conspiracy. Do It For The Case Law is a news reporting service. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal advice.