The Internet, Interstate Commerce and Wire Fraud

March 17, 2025  |  New York Law Journal

In wire fraud cases the government must prove transmission of wire communications across state lines.  Use of the internet is generally thought to be interstate in nature, but courts have wrestled with the question of whether use of the internet by itself meets the “in interstate commerce” requirement of the wire fraud and other federal criminal statutes.  In their latest article for the NYLJ, “The Internet, Interstate Commerce and Wire Fraud,” Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello partners Elkan Abramowitz and Jonathan S. Sack examine the First Circuit’s recent ruling in United States v. O’Donovan, 126 F.4th 17 (1st Cir. 2025), the circuit split over whether Internet use alone satisfies the interstate commerce requirement, and the implications for prosecutions in the Second Circuit. 

The Internet, Interstate Commerce and Wire Fraud