United States v. Williams

504 U.S. 36 (1992)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Williams (D) was indicted for knowingly making false statements to a federally insured financial institution (18 U.S.C. Section 1014). The indictment stated that D supplied four Oklahoma banks with materially false statements that overstated the value of his current assets and interest income in order to influence loan requests. D listed on his balance sheets notes of approximately $6 million from three venture capital companies. The balance sheet contained a disclaimer that these assets were carried at cost rather than market value. The Government's contention was that listing these notes as current assets was misleading because D knew that none of the venture capital companies could afford to satisfy the notes in the short term. D also failed to disclose that the interest payments that D received on those notes were funded entirely by the loans that D made to the venture capital companies. After the arraignment, D moved for disclosure of all exculpatory evidence portions of the grand jury transcripts. D then demanded that the indictments be dismissed on grounds the government failed to disclose substantial exculpatory evidence to the grand jury. D's motion was denied, but upon reconsideration, the indictment was dismissed without prejudice. The court of appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.