⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Second Circuit revisits fraud convictions over a United Nations-funded radio station for women in Iraq. Steve Jabar and Deborah Bowers ran the nonprofit that received three hundred fifty thousand dollars for the project. Prosecutors say more than sixty-five thousand dollars went toward personal bills and debts. The defense says the station was built and project spending exceeded the grant, even though money moved through mixed accounts. A jury convicted them, but the trial judge set aside the fraud verdicts. In 2021, the appeals court reversed those acquittals and sent the case back for consideration of a new-trial request. The defendants now challenge their reinstated convictions and seek a new trial. Robert Singer, for Jabar, and Mahoney, for Bowers, will argue that later Supreme Court decisions undermine the earlier fraud analysis, and that the trial judge should reconsider the evidence. Tiffany Lee, for the United States, will defend the convictions as fraud aimed at obtaining money, not merely withholding information.

United States of America v. Jabar (Bowers) (No. 25-1118) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, argued October 26, 2026.