Emergency application
Limits on federal fraud law
Steven Aiello v. United States
What did the Court do?
The Court denied the request on February 3, 2025: the lower court's ruling stays in effect while the appeal continues.
Emergency rulings are temporary and do not decide the underlying case.
What's being asked
Steven Aiello, Joseph Gerardi, Louis Ciminelli, and Alain Kaloyeros ask the Court to pause the Second Circuit's ruling from taking effect. They want the pause to last while they seek Supreme Court review. The Second Circuit vacated (wiped out) their wire-fraud and wire-fraud-conspiracy convictions and remanded (sent the case back to the lower court) for further proceedings. It also vacated (wiped out) Aiello's conviction for conspiring to commit honest-services wire fraud and affirmed (agreed with the lower court) Gerardi's false-statement conviction.
What the Court did
Justice Sotomayor refused the emergency request and denied (refused) the application for a stay (temporary pause). She vacated (wiped out) the temporary pause she issued on January 22. The Court did not publish how the justices voted.
What it means
This emergency order deals only with a temporary pause; it does not decide who ultimately wins the criminal case. The Second Circuit's ruling sent parts of the case back for further proceedings. The docket lists no related case on the main legal questions, and no argument date is set.
Sources
Facts on this page come from the Supreme Court docket, orders, and opinions for No. 24A712. The answers restate that record in plain words; explainer copy is written from the record and the filings only.