JUDICIAL DILUTION AND THE FEDERAL-BANK FRAUD STATUTE

The current wave of appellate decisions interpreting the scope of the federal bank fraud statute has, according to the author, limited the s cope of the statute and resulted in a wide variance in judicial interp retation of the statute among the federal circuit courts. The author d iscusses the genesis of the bank fraud statute, its concept of ''schem e or artifice to defraud,'' and the variety of conflicting appellate d ecisions involving the prosecution of check kites, with particular emp hasis on the Lemons decision and the controversy over multiplicity.