United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

United States v. Adams, 281 U.S. 202 (1930)

United States v. Adams

Nos. 281 and 282

Argued March 6, 1930

Decided April 14, 1930

281 U.S. 202

Syllabus

1. Under Rev.Stats. § 5209, as amended; U.S.C. Title 12, § 592; which punishes any officer of a federal reserve or member bank

Page 281 U. S. 203

who make any false entry in any book or report of the bank with intent to defraud or deceive, etc., two entries on a bank's books referring to the same transaction, based upon the same draft and which were the correlated means of accomplishing a single fraud, are not separately punishable as separate offenses. P. 281 U. S. 204.

2. The offense under this section of making a false entry in a report of condition of a bank, showing a credit, is distinct from the offense of making an earlier false entry on its books, showing the same credit. P. 281 U. S. 205.

3. In a prosecution under this section for making a false entry of credit in a report of the bank's condition with intent to defraud and deceive, a former acquittal upon a charge of making with like intent earlier entries of the same credit on the bank's books is not a bar, since the acquittal, though it establishes that the book entries were not made with criminal intent, does not establish that they were true, and non constat but that the accused may have learned of their falsity after entering them on the books and before making the report. P. 281 U. S. 205.

No. 281 affirmed.

No. 282 reversed.

Appeals from judgments of the district court sustaining pleas of former acquittal in bar of two indictments, one charging that the appellee made a false entry on a book of a bank of which he was president, and the other that he made a false entry in a report of its condition.