Can a single email be wire fraud?

| by Max Soni

Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group. We’re a second-generation law firm, managed by Todd Spodek – with over 40 years of combined experience handling federal criminal defense cases. You know us from the Anna Delvey Netflix series, from representing the juror in the Ghislaine Maxwell case, and from handling hundreds of federal cases that others turned down. If you’re reading this, someone told you that a single email could land you in federal prison for wire fraud.

The answer is yes. One email can be wire fraud. That’s not a theoretical possibility – it’s how the statute works, and federal prosecutors use it that way constantly.

Wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1343 doesn’t require multiple communications, an ongoing scheme, or even a completed fraud. It requires three elements: a scheme to defraud, use of interstate wire communications, and intent. A single email that crosses state lines satisfies the wire element. If that email advances a fraudulent scheme – even if the scheme never succeeds, even if the victim never loses money – it’s wire fraud.

Each separate wire communication is a separate count of wire fraud. Send five emails about the same fraudulent deal? That’s five counts, each carrying up to 20 years in prison. The communication doesn’t have to contain the lie itself – it just has to further the scheme. An email confirming a meeting, forwarding documents, or arranging a phone call can all qualify if they’re part of advancing the fraud.

The Supreme Court Just Made This Worse

In May 2025, the Supreme Court decided Kousisis v. United States, and the decision made wire fraud even easier for prosecutors to prove. The Court held – unanimously – that defendants can be convicted of wire fraud even when the victim suffers no economic loss. No loss required.

The Kousisis case involved a painting contractor who lied to PennDOT about using a disadvantaged business supplier. Alpha Painting completed the projects, PennDOT got what it paid for – but the company lied about its supplier structure to get the contracts. The Supreme Court said that’s wire fraud. The lie was material and induced the victim into a transaction. Economic harm isn’t part of the statute.

Justice Barrett wrote the opinion. She pointed out that the wire fraud statute “does not mention, much less require, actual economic loss.” Prosecutors can charge wire fraud based on lies that induce someone into a deal, even if that deal turns out fine for everyone involved.

Intent Is Where Cases Get Won or Lost

The wire element is easy to prove – you sent an email, the email crossed state lines, done. The fraud element comes down to intent, and that’s where defense work actually matters.

Federal prosecutors must prove you had intent to defraud at the time you sent the communication. Not negligence, not recklessness, not a mistake – specific intent to deceive someone out of money or property. Intent lives in your head and prosecutors have to prove it circumstantially through your words, your actions, your documents, and your behavior.

Businesspeople get charged with wire fraud constantly over deals that went sideways. A projection that didn’t pan out becomes “fraudulent misrepresentation.” An optimistic statement about company finances becomes “material deception.” The difference between aggressive sales tactics and federal wire fraud often depends on what prosecutors can prove about what you knew and when you knew it.

We’ve represented clients – many, many clients – who sent emails making statements that later turned out to be wrong. That’s not wire fraud. Wire fraud requires that you knew the statement was false when you made it, or that you made it with reckless indifference to its truth. Proving knowledge is hard, which is why the government pulls phone records, emails, text messages, and financial documents trying to show you knew the truth but lied anyway.

If the evidence shows you believed what you wrote in that email – even if you were wrong – that’s not criminal fraud. It might be a civil problem, but it’s not a federal crime. Federal criminal defense attorneys challenge the government’s intent evidence constantly. Did your client have access to information showing the statement was false? Did contemporaneous documents contradict what they told the victim?

Federal prosecutors build wire fraud cases by accumulating circumstantial evidence of guilty knowledge. Our job is showing that same evidence is consistent with innocent explanations – mistakes, miscommunication, changed circumstances.

Why Prosecutors Love This Charge

Wire fraud is the federal prosecutor’s favorite charge. It’s easy to prove the wire element because every business operates electronically now. Emails, phone calls, wire transfers, text messages – all of these satisfy the interstate wire requirement because internet traffic crosses state lines automatically.

Wire fraud carries 20-year maximum sentences. Each wire is a separate count. A fraud scheme involving 50 emails creates 50 separate charges, and federal judges can stack those sentences. We’ve seen prosecutors charge defendants with dozens of wire fraud counts arising from a single scheme, creating sentencing exposure that forces plea negotiations.

After Kousisis, wire fraud doesn’t require a victim to lose money. Prosecutors can charge cases where the victim got exactly what they paid for, as long as the transaction was induced by material misrepresentations.

Wire fraud also serves as a building block for other charges. It’s a predicate offense for money laundering, which adds another 20 years. It triggers enhanced penalties when the scheme affects financial institutions – bumping the maximum sentence to 30 years and fines to $1 million per count.

What You Should Do If You’re Being Investigated

If federal agents contact you about emails you sent, or if you receive a grand jury subpoena – stop talking to everyone except your attorney. Immediately.

The biggest mistake we see is people trying to “explain” their way out of a wire fraud investigation. You agree to an interview with FBI agents because you have “nothing to hide.” You talk to the victim trying to make things right. Every single one of those communications gives prosecutors more evidence to use against you.

Wire fraud cases are document-intensive. The government already has your emails – they got them from your company’s server, from the victim, from subpoenas to your email provider. They’ve read everything you wrote. What they don’t have is your explanation, your admissions, your attempts to minimize what happened.

At Spodek Law Group – we tell clients to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights and say nothing without counsel present. Federal agents are skilled interrogators who know how to turn your explanations into admissions. They’ll tell you they just want to hear your side. They’ll say cooperation will help you. Ignore all of it.

The time to tell your story is in court, through your attorney, after we’ve reviewed the government’s evidence. Not in an FBI conference room with agents taking notes.

We’ve represented clients through wire fraud investigations where charges were never filed because we identified problems with the government’s case early. We’ve negotiated pre-indictment resolutions that avoided prison time. We’ve won acquittals on wire fraud charges that looked solid on paper but fell apart under cross-examination.

None of that happens if you’re talking to federal agents without a lawyer. The answer is yes – a single email can be wire fraud. But whether that email becomes a conviction depends on how the case is defended.