Full opinion text
POOLER, Circuit Judge. This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction entered in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Griesa, /.), convicting Appellant Sanjaya Bahel of four counts of use of the mail or wires in furtherance of fraud that deprived the United Nations, his former employer, of its intangible right to his honest services in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341, 1343, 1346; one count of corrupt receipt of things of value with intent to be rewarded with respect to official business in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 666; and one count of conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. We hold that the United Nations expressly waived Bahel’s immunity, and even if it had not, Bahel himself waived any claim of immunity by failing to raise the issue until the trial was complete. We also hold that the United Nations Participation Act, which authorizes the payment of the United States’ dues to the United Nations (“U.N.”), is both a “federal program” and a “benefit” within the meaning of Section 666, which encompasses bribes as well as illegal gratuities. We further hold Section 1346 is broad enough to encompass honest services fraud committed by a foreign worker at the U.N., that Bahel was properly sentenced as a “public official” under the Sentencing Guidelines Section 2C1.1, and that the district court committed no error in ordering Bahel to pay restitution in the form of remitting a portion of his salary at the U.N., which amounted to what Bahel was paid during the time he was suspended pending investigation of the conduct underlying his conviction. For the following reasons, the judgment of conviction is affirmed. BACKGROUND The following facts are drawn from the evidence presented at trial, and are presented in the light most favorable to the government. See United States v. Ivezaj, 568 F.3d 88, 90 (2d Cir.2009). Sanjaya Bahel served as a Chief of the Commodity Procurement Section within the U.N.’s Procurement Division from 1998 to 2003. Beginning around 1999, Nanak Kohli, a long time friend of Bahel’s, began to seek business as a supplier to the U.N., with the assistance of his sons, Nishan and Ranjit. As a section chief for the U.N. Procurement Division, Bahel assisted the Kohlis in their efforts to secure contracts as a U.N. supplier. In connection with the prosecution of Bahel, Nishan Kohli, an indicted coconspirator, became a cooperating witness for the government and the primary source of information regarding Bahel’s activities on behalf of the Kohli family. Bahel’s work performance was subject to a variety of U.N. rules, which inform the contours of the duty Bahel owed to his employer. These included (1) an obligation to discharge his job duties with impartiality; (2) to work in the U.N.’s interests; (3) to avoid using his U.N. position for gain; (4) to obtain approval from the Secretary General for gifts; (5) not to have an association with an entity seeking U.N. business; and (6) to disclose any conflicts of interest or be recused in such circumstances. The Government offered evidence at trial to show that Bahel violated these requirements, and by extension, certain federal statutes by providing the Kohli family with inside information on the bidding process for contracts; convincing U.N. employees that the Kohli companies’ bids did not raise concerns; counseling the Kohlis on how to win contracts; and assisting in the preparation of documentation to the U.N., without disclosing to the U.N. Bahel’s long-term friendship with the Kohlis or the financial benefits that the Kohlis provided to Bahel during the period that his assistance was given. The Government focused on three U.N. contracts at trial; (1) a 1999 “digital trunking contract”; (2) a 2000 “communications and information technology manpower contract”; and (3) a 2002 “engineering manpower contract.” First, in 1999, the Kohli family’s company, TOIL, bid for the 1999 digital trunking contract, but was found technically non-compliant. In response, Bahel insisted that Peacekeeping officials hold tutorials with TOIL, which had provided the lowest bid, to see if it was possible to overcome technical deficiencies. When officials determined the technical flaws could not be rectified, Bahel sent a letter objecting to the determination. At trial, one official testified that “[i]t did appear to [him] and others within [his] section at the time that [Bahel’s] involvement happened on a more regular basis with cases related to TOIL.” Next, in 2000, TOIL won a $30 million contract for manpower support, although the company had no experience in that area. When Peacekeeping learned that TOIL was not providing the Mission Subsistence Allowance (“MSA”) stipend to its employees, Peacekeeping sought to cancel the contract. Bahel intervened. He had conversations with the Kohlis, during which they discussed having workers sign letters of satisfaction stating that they had received the MSA or its equivalent. Bahel, along with Nanak Kohli, then met with members of the U.N.’s Office of Legal Affairs. During that meeting, Bahel never disclosed that he and Nanak were “old friends” or that the two previously had “private conversations” regarding the contract. Indeed, Bahel never told the other meeting participants that he “knew [Nanak] in any capacity other than an official one.” Thus, the U.N. employees at the meeting believed that Bahel was “acting on behalf of the United Nations” insofar as he was negotiating at the meeting. The product of the meeting was that TOIL and the U.N. eventually agreed that these letters were sufficient to avoid cancellation of the contract. Nishan Kohli would later testify that this resolution did little more than maintain the status quo, because, pursuant to the plan the Kohlis negotiated with Bahel, TOIL “put a lot of pressure on the workers” to sign the letters, by “explaining] to them that if they continued to complain the contract could be canceled and they would all be without jobs.” TOIL also threatened to “encash” the $2,000 “security deposit” required of all workers, “if they didn’t cooperate.” Finally, in 2002, Peacekeeping asked the U.N. to provide engineers for its missions around the world. Nishan testified that his family learned of this request from Bahel more than a month before it was published on the U.N. website. He also testified that Bahel “notified [the Kohlis] that it was coming ... and that [they] should prepare for it.” Nishan testified that this information was beneficial because the Kohli family’s new company, Thunderbird, “had not actually registered with the UN so [they] had to go through that process which would take a bit of time.” Nishan further testified that “in general early notification was helpful to [them] because [they] weren’t really qualified or prepared to ultimately respond to this kind of requirement, so any additional time that [they] could get was helpful.” In order to get Thunderbird registered, Nishan stated that “[i]t was [their] intention ... to basically fake experience” with providing manpower services. Nishan testified that the Kohlis had discussed this approach with Bahel, who they considered “an adviser.” Thunderbird’s registration was thereafter approved. When the Kohli family was preparing its bid, Bahel discussed with them the price to bid in order to maximize the chances of obtaining the contract. Indeed, Nishan testified that “[t]he very final numbers that I entered in by hand on the day of submission were read to me by Mr. Bahel and I transcribed them over the telephone while talking to him.” In response to queries from the Kohlis regarding their “lack of experience,” “Bahel advised [them] that [they] would have to produce some form of experience or [they] wouldn’t be qualified.” Specifically, he told them to “get, by whatever means, letters stating that [they] had, in fact, this experience.” Later, when Peacekeeping raised concerns about Thunderbird’s references, Bahel “gave [the Kohlis] the heads-up on that unofficially and advised [them] to get in touch with the companies in advance and let them know that there would be a call coming from the U.N. and ... make sure [they] corroborate what [they] said in these letters.” Bahel instructed his subordinates to check the references by sending faxes to the relevant addresses, but crippled their ability to do so by allowing them to cheek on information provided only “on the letters of reference themselves or in the Thunderbird financial proposal.” Bahel ultimately told Peacekeeping that the references “checked [ ] out,” were “valid,” and that “this was a company with vast international contracts of high dollar amount, and they were performing well around the world.” Bahel signed a request for audited financial statements, which Nishan Kohli testified caused him some “concern,” because the Kohlis “didn’t have [audited financial] statements” for Thunderbird. The Kohli family discussed the matter with Bahel, who recommended that the Kohlis argue to the U.N. that Thunderbird was “a limited liability corporation and privately owned and therefore not subject to requirements for audited statements.” Bahel repeated the same argument internally to U.N. personnel, explaining that “U.S. law did not require limited liability companies to furnish audited statements.” When Bahel eventually had to tell the Kohlis that they would not be able to avoid submitting audited financial statements, he was simultaneously working internally at the U.N. to limit their exposure to a full blown audit. Although one of Bahel’s subordinates recommended that the U.N. request three years of financial statements, on the ground that the U.N. “should have some history of Thunderbird LLC’s financial performance, meaning financial audited statements (or tax return, if they don’t have these),” Bahel requested only one year of audited statements from the company. Nishan testified that he was away when the financial statements were due, so, he sent an email to his brother, Ranjit Kohli, with “a draft cover letter ... for Thunderbird, which [Nishan] wanted [Ranjit] to put on top of the statements that [the Kohlis] would ultimately receive from [the] account and sen[d] to the UN after discussing it with Mr. Bahel.” The email also contained certain instructions regarding the submission of the statements. Specifically, Nishan instructed Ranjit: “If possible check with SB if any changes need to be made” to the cover letter, before submitting the statements. On August 6, 2002, Peacekeeping sent a memo ranking Thunderbird “at the bottom of the list of five” companies bidding for the engineering manpower contract. Peacekeeping found that Thunderbird was only “marginally compliant” and “lackfed] sufficient documentation as to the company’s main product or line of work.” Among the concerns was the fact that Thunderbird was not registered with Dun & Bradstreet. In response, Bahel “instructed [the Kohlis] to immediately register with Dun & Bradstreet,” which they did. Thunderbird was required to post a “performance bond” in order to qualify for the contract. Ordinarily, a company would be required to post a $500,000 performance bond, which was also what was specified in the U.N.’s request for proposals regarding this particular contract. However, “when it came to[ ] Thunderbird the UN wanted an additional amount because [they] were a new company fully registered with the UN and ... were [only] marginally compliant with the requirement[s]” for the contract. Nishan attended a meeting at the U.N. on this issue. He testified that he “spoke to Mr. Bahel in advance of the meeting unofficially and [Bahel] briefed [him] for what was going to happen in the meeting.” Specifically, Bahel “told [Nishan] that [they] would be discussing the audited statements[,] that [they]’d be discussing an enhanced performance bond.” Bahel also “gave [Nishan] a bit of insight on Ms. Redfren,” Bahel’s subordinate, who was scheduled to attend the meeting, including on “her personality and her work patterns.” After the meeting took place, Bahel called Nishan to say that the U.N. “had asked for an additional $1 million bond.” Bahel also told Nishan “informally that [he] could probably get away with 750 and said to offer half a million and to negotiate from there.” Bahel received a number of financial benefits from the Kohli family in exchange for the assistance he provided. Between 2001 and 2004, he received cash payments from $3,000 to $5,000 on a near monthly basis. The Kohlis also gave Bahel a laptop computer worth more than $2,500. An email sent by Ranjit to Nishan before Bahel had physically received the computer stated “Sanjay doesn’t want [the laptop] to ... mention Kohli anywhere.” Bahel received first-class plane tickets to India and seats to the U.S. Open tennis tournament. The most significant financial benefit was Bahel’s rental, between October 2003 and April 2005, and eventual purchase, of the Kohli’s three-bedroom apartment a few blocks from the U.N. in the Dag Hammarskjold Towers. The Kohlis initially charged Bahel $5,000 per month rent when he first moved into the apartment, though the previous tenant had paid $8,600. Lowering the rent further, Bahel paid no rent for three months of each year of the lease. After the Kohlis purchased the apartment in 2003 for $1.24 million and invested $165,000 in renovations, they sold the apartment to Bahel in May 2005 for $1.2 million. Bahel misrepresented both the amount of rent and the purchase price of the apartment in communications to the board of the building. He also later told the contractor who renovated the apartment to conceal the connection between Bahel and the Kohlis. Nishan testified that, at that time, the market value of the apartment was approximately $1.8 million. Nishan Kohli received a federal subpoena in late 2005, at which point he “notified [Bahel] of the subpoena,” who “expressed ... concern.” Both then, and in subsequent conversations, Bahel spoke with Nishan about ways to conceal their relationship. Specifically, Bahel and Nishan “talked back and forth,” and Bahel “suggested that [the two] ... get rid of a few things that could be incriminating for [them],” including “files on [Nishan’s] laptop and anything else that ... might link [the two] together.” During these conversations, Bahel also “suggested that [Nishan] just transfer the remaining files that [Nishan] would need from [his] laptop to a new machine and dump the old one altogether, destroy it.” In July 2006, the U.N.’s Procurement Fraud Task Force issued a report detailing a financial relationship between Bahel and the Kohlis. The U.N. referred the report to the United States Attorney’s Office. On October 6, 2006, a grand jury returned a sealed indictment against Bahel and Nishan Kohli. The indictment contained six counts. Counts One and Two charged Bahel with defrauding the U.N. of its intangible right to his honest services and using the mails in furtherance of that scheme, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1346. Counts Three and Four charged Bahel with defrauding the U.N. of its intangible right to his honest services and using interstate wire communications to further that scheme, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1343 and 1346. Count Five charged Bahel with participating in a conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and to corruptly accept things of value with an intent to be influenced or rewarded with respect to the award of U.N. contracts to companies associated with the Kohlis, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. Count Six charged Bahel with the substantive offense of corruptly accepting and soliciting various things of value with the intent to be influenced or rewarded with respect to the award of U.N. contracts to the Kohli’s companies, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 666(a)(1)(B). In an October 31, 2006 letter to the U.N., the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated that it had “sufficient evidence to bring federal charges against [Bahel] relating to his receipt of things of value from in or about May 2003 through in or about May 2005 with the intent to be influenced and rewarded in connection with his duties as a procurement officer at the United Nations,” and requested that the “United Nations waive immunity for United Nations employee Sanjaya Bahel.” The United Nations agreed. In a November 1, 2006 letter from the U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, the organization stated: In this case, the Secretary-General has no objection to the waiver of Mr. Bahel’s immunity from legal process.... [T]he Secretary General has waived, Under Article V, Section 20 of the [U.N.] Convention, the immunity from legal process of Mr. Bahel for purpose of the criminal proceedings initiated by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, for crimes allegedly committed during his employment as a procurement officer at the [U.N.] from in or about May 2003 through in or about May 2005. A three-week trial in May and June 2007 resulted in Bahel’s convictions on all counts. He was sentenced principally to 97 months’ imprisonment, ordered to pay $932,165.39 in restitution, and to forfeit $103,500 in currency and title in the Manhattan apartment. The final order of forfeiture was entered on April 20, 2010. Bahel satisfied the restitution portion of the judgment as of July 1, 2011. Bahel has since been released on bail. Bahel raises six principal issues on this appeal. In his moving brief, Bahel argues first that the district court lacked jurisdiction to entertain his prosecution because the U.N. did not effectively waive his immunity under the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations (the “Convention”), 21 U.S.T. 1418, which was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on February 13, 1946, and acceded to by the United States on April 29, 1970. Bahel next argues that he was improperly convicted under 18 U.S.C. § 666, because the United States’ treaty obligation to the United Nations is not a “federal program” to which the United States provides assistance “benefits” prerequisite to the statute’s application. Bahel further argues that district court erred in its charge to the jury on Section 666, because the court failed to instruct the jury that it had to find “corrupt intent” before it could adjudge Bahel guilty of violating the statute. With respect to the honest services conviction, Bahel maintains that Congress’s definition of “honest services” does not reach foreign workers at the United Nations, and even if it does, the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction for honest services fraud. Finally, Bahel believes that the district court committed error in enhancing his sentence upon a finding that he was a “public official” and then miscalculated the value of the “rewards” he received as a result of the offenses underlying the conviction. Between the time Bahel filed his moving brief (December 23, 2008) and his reply brief (July 15, 2009), the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in United States v. Black, 530 F.3d 596 (7th Cir. 2008), cert. granted, — U.S. -, 129 S.Ct. 2379, 173 L.Ed.2d 1291 (2009), to resolve the question of whether a fact finder must find that a fraudulent scheme contemplated economic harm to a victim prerequisite to a finding of liability for violating the honest services fraud statute. Though he had not raised the underlying substantive arguments previously, Bahel argued at length in his reply brief that the outcome in Black would bear on his appeal, because there was some question as to whether the Government was required to prove that his scheme to defraud the U.N. caused his victim economic harm. We first heard oral argument in this case on July 8, 2009, but held the appeal in abeyance pending the Supreme Court’s determination of the merits of Black. In the meantime, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in two cases presenting related issues: United States v. Weyhrauch, 548 F.3d 1237 (9th Cir.2008), cert. granted, — U.S. -, 129 S.Ct. 2863, 174 L.Ed.2d 575 (2009) (question presented: “Whether, to convict a state official for depriving the public of its right to the defendant’s honest services through the non-disclosure of material information, in violation of the mail-fraud statute (18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1346), the government must prove that the defendant violated a disclosure duty imposed by state law.”), and United States v. Skilling, 554 F.3d 529 (5th Cir.2009), cert. granted, — U.S. -, 130 S.Ct. 393, 175 L.Ed.2d 267 (2009) (question presented in relevant part: “Whether the federal ‘honest services’ fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1346, requires the government to prove that the defendant’s conduct was intended to achieve ‘private gain’ rather than to advance the employer’s interests, and, if not, whether § 1346 is unconstitutionally vague.”). The Supreme Court heard oral argument in Black, Weyhrauch and Skilling, but issued an opinion only in connection with the substantive issue presented by Skilling v. United States. See — U.S. -, 130 S.Ct. 2896, 2912 n. 9, 177 L.Ed.2d 619 (2010) (vacating and remanding Black and Weyhrauch in light of Skilling). The thrust of that opinion, with respect to the honest services fraud holding, was that honest services fraud under Section 1346 is limited to a bribery and kickback “core,” and thus does not include undisclosed conflicts of interest, such as those held by Jeffrey Skilling. See 130 S.Ct. at 2907. Following the Supreme Court’s decision, which issued on June 24, 2010, both parties submitted supplemental briefing to this Court. Bahel, in particular, raised a number of new arguments for the first time in his supplemental brief. These related principally to the sufficiency of the indictment and jury charge. With respect to the jury charge, Bahel argued that the district court’s instruction was flawed, even though it was a bribery instruction, because it omitted “the essence of bribery: corrupt intent and a quid pro quo agreement.” The Government urged that Skilling had no impact on Bahel’s conviction, in part because the district court gave a bribery instruction, and Bahel was clearly convicted on a bribery theory of liability. We heard oral argument on January 13, 2011, regarding the impact of Skilling on this case. Concluding now, as we do, that neither Skilling nor any other relevant precedent compels a contrary conclusion, we affirm the judgment of conviction entered by the district court. DISCUSSION I. Immunity and Waiver U.N. officials are granted immunity from prosecution pursuant to Article V, Section 18 of the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations (the “U.N. Convention”), Feb. 13, 1946, 21 U.S.T. 1418, entered into force with respect to the United States Apr. 29, 1970, which states in relevant part that U.N. officials are “immune from legal process in respect of words spoken or written and all acts performed by them in their official capacity.” Id. art. V, § 18(a). Section 20 of the Convention provides that: “Privileges and immunities,” such as immunity from prosecution, “are granted to officials in the interests of the United Nations, and not for the personal benefit of the individuals themselves.” Id. art. V, § 20. Only the Secretary General may waive the immunity of a U.N. official. Id. Bahel argued for the first time after his trial that the U.N. had not waived his immunity for the subject matter of the prosecution. Bahel bases this claim in part on a contention that the Diplomatic Relations Act (“DRA”), 22 U.S.C. § 254d, provides him with the right to raise a claim of immunity. However, as the Government points out, the DRA applies only to diplomats, and not to other officials, like Bahel. Instead, the International Organization Immunities Act (“IOIA”), 59 Stat. 669, 22 U.S.C. §§ 288 et seq., governs Bahel’s right to raise a claim of immunity — the IOIA expressly applies to “officers and employees of [international] organizations,” and states that such individuals “shall be immune from suit and legal process relating to acts performed by them in their official capacity and falling within their functions as ... officers, or employees except insofar as such immunity may be waived by the ... international organization concerned.” Id. § 288d(b). Bahel further contends that Article II, Section 2 of the U.N. Convention would only allow for his prosecution had there been an express waiver of his immunity by the U.N., which he maintains never occurred. Article II, Section 2 provides that “[t]he United Nations ... shall enjoy immunity from every form of legal process except insofar as in any particular case it has expressly waived its immunity.” U.N. Convention art. II, § 2, 21 U.S.T. 1422 (emphasis added). Although the plain language of this provision suggests otherwise, Bahel contends that it applies both to the U.N. as an organization and to its employees. But see id. art. V, § 18 (addressing immunity for certain U.N. employees deemed “officials”). From this faulty assumption, Bahel deduces that a waiver of immunity by the Secretary General as to an employee or official must be express in order to be valid — because the U.N. as an organization may only waive its own immunity (as conferred on the organization) expressly. While Bahel maintains that his immunity was expressly waived as to conduct between May 2003 and May 2005, he also maintains that the charges against him relate only to conduct that occurred prior to May 2003, for which there was no express waiver, and accordingly, Bahel argues that those charges should have been dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. We disagree. As a threshold matter, we note that the plain language of Article II leaves no doubt that the U.N. can only waive immunity for itself, as an organization, expressly. See id. art. II, § 2 (“The United Nations ... shall enjoy immunity from every form of legal process except insofar as in any particular case it has expressly waived its immunity.” (emphasis added)); see also Brzak v. United Nations, 597 F.3d 107, 112 (2d Cir.2010) (recognizing that the U.N. must expressly waive immunity). However, Article V, which covers immunity for “officials,” lacks that same plain language. Instead, Article V Section 20 states that: “Privileges and immunities are granted to officials in the interests of the United Nations and not for the personal benefit of the individuals themselves. The Secretary-General shall have the right and the duty to waive the immunity of any official in any case where, in his opinion, the immunity would impede the courts of justice and can be waived without prejudice to the interests of the United Nations.” U.N. Convention art. V, § 20. Bahel’s contention that an express waiver is required for officials is based largely on case law interpreting Article II, which is limited to the U.N.’s immunity as an organization — not Article V, which covers officials. See, e.g., Emmanuel v. United States, 253 F.3d 755, 756 (1st Cir.2001) (noting that Article II immunity would apply to the U.N. Mission in Haiti, in light of the U.N.-Haiti Status of Forces Agreement that extended Article II immunity to the Mission); Askir v. Boutros-Ghali, 933 F.Supp. 368, 371, 373 (S.D.N.Y.1996) (dismissing the complaint sua sponte as against the U.N. organization because Article II rendered the U.N. immune from suit). Further, the only two cases cited by Bahel that directly analyze Article V are wholly inapposite. One involved a situation where a party failed to argue that immunity had been waived. See De Luca v. United Nations Org., 841 F.Supp. 531, 535 (S.D.N.Y.1994) (“Here, plaintiff has not alleged that the U.N. has waived the immunity of the[ ] four [individual] defendants.”). The other involved a situation wherein the U.N. had expressly declined to waive immunity for one of its employees. See McGehee v. Albright, 210 F.Supp.2d 210, 218 n. 7 (S.D.N.Y.1999) (noting that the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs for the United Nations “informed the Court that the United Nations is not waiving its immunity in this action as to defendant [Secretary-General Kofi] Annan.”). The absence of an express waiver requirement in Article V, coupled with a lack of precedent to the contrary, leaves us unable to conclude that Article V unequivocally requires an express waiver in order to be effective. Accord Restatement (Third) of Foreign Relations Law § 456(l)(a), (2)(c) and cmt. b (1987) (explaining that in the absence of an express waiver requirement, waiver by a state can be effected “either expressly or by implication”); compare also IOIA, 22 U.S.C. § 288a(b) (“International organizations ” are immune from suit in federal courts “except to the extent that such organizations expressly waive their immunity....” (emphasis added)), with id. § 288d(b) {“[OJfficers and employees of [international] organizations shall be immune from suit and legal process ... except insofar as such immunity may be waived....” (emphasis added)). This determination, however, does not alter the outcome of this case, because we conclude that the U.N. expressly waived Bahel’s immunity. In response to the Government’s request that the U.N. “waive any claim of immunity,” the U.N. sent a letter to the Government, dated November 1, 2006, stating: the “Secretary-General has no objection to the waiver of Mr. Bahel’s immunity from legal process.” The letter further stated that the U.N. waived “the immunity from legal process of Mr. Bahel for the purpose of the criminal proceedings initiated by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, for crimes allegedly committed during his employment as a procurement officer at the UN from in or about May 2003 through in or about May 2005.” Although the letter did include specific dates, that is “in or about May 2003” to “in or about May 2005,” we believe that the circumstances surrounding the U.N.’s participation in Bahel’s investigation and prosecution make pellucid that reference to the dates in the letter was intended only to identify the criminal proceedings that had been initiated by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York — not to limit the scope of the waiver. It is significant that the U.N. itself referred the matter of Bahel’s prosecution to the United States Attorney’s Office and cooperated at all stages of the prosecution, including by providing relevant documents and waiving immunity for several employees who testified at Bahel’s trial. Further, in a second letter dated January 14, 2008, the U.N. confirmed that its first letter was intended fully to waive Bahel’s immunity. Indeed, at no point did the U.N. object to the scope of the proceeding. Even if there had been no express waiver of Bahel’s immunity by the U.N., Bahel himself impliedly waived any claim of immunity when he participated fully in the criminal proceedings without raising the issue of immunity until after the trial. See Richardson v. Fajardo Sugar Co., 241 U.S. 44, 46-47, 36 S.Ct. 476, 60 L.Ed. 879 (1916) (holding that a defendant who appeared, filed answers to an original and several amended complaints, set a trial date, and first raised the defense of sovereign immunity eights months after the action began had waived the defense). Though there is limited case law addressing waiver under the U.N. Convention, which is the operable document in the case sub judice, we have previously stated that diplomatic immunity from prosecution may be waived. See United States v. Lumumba, 741 F.2d 12 (2d Cir.1984). In Lumumba, we explained: “Even if by a stretch of the imagination one could assume the existence of such status [diplomatic immunity], it was waived in this case. Lumumba, a member of the Michigan bar, freely chose to appear pro hac vice in the United States District Court to represent a criminal defendant. It would be anomalous to believe that he could participate in a trial as counsel ... without subjecting himself to the district court’s contempt procedures.” Id. at 15. At least two of our sister circuits have expressed similar views. In Holloway v. Walker, 800 F.2d 479 (5th Cir.1986), the Fifth Circuit explained that although it did not believe that Appellant was entitled to plead diplomatic immunity, to the extent he was, “this right was waived by his action in withholding such plea until the unsuccessful termination of such litigation.” Id. at 481. More recently, in United States v. Campa, 529 F.3d 980 (11th Cir.2008), the defendant, as here, waited until after the trial to raise the issue of immunity, and then argued that the district court had lacked jurisdiction to entertain an action against him in the first instance. Id. at 1001. Although defendant’s argument in Campa was based on his purported sovereignty under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1330, 1332, 1391(f), 1441(d), 1602-11, which expressly states that waiver can be implied, id. § 1605(a)(1) (“A foreign state shall not be immune from the jurisdiction of courts of the United States or of the States in any case — -(1) in which the foreign state has waived its immunity either explicitly or by implication, notwithstanding any withdrawal of the waiver which the foreign state may purport to effect except in accordance with the terms of the waiver.... ”), the underlying conduct at issue in Campa nevertheless informs our analysis. That is, in that case, the Eleventh Circuit emphasized that the defendant had waived his right to invoke immunity through his “long and active participation in the action.” 529 F.3d at 1001 (citing Richardson, 241 U.S. at 47, 36 S.Ct. 476). Here too, Bahel was present throughout the pendency of his prosecution and never raised the defense of immunity. The time to raise the issue has long since passed. Having participated fully in the action, he is now bound by its outcome. Accordingly, although we find that the U.N. effectively and expressly waived Bahel’s immunity in its letter to the Government, we also hold in the alternative that Bahel waived his right to invoke immunity by waiting until after the trial to raise the issue. II. 18 U.S.C. § 666 Having resolved the question of immunity from prosecution, we turn to Bahel’s substantive arguments regarding the bases of his conviction. Bahel was charged and convicted under Count Six of violating 18 U.S.C. § 666(a)(1)(B) by accepting compensation as a “reward” for the favors he provided to the Kohlis. With respect to this count, Bahel first argues that “[n]o reading of [18 U.S.C. § 666] could plausibly be extended to the charges in this case,” because “[t]he United States’ membership in the United Nations is not a ‘federal program’ under [Section] 666(b), and the contributions made to the United Nations under the United States treaty obligation in the U.N. Convention and Charter is not a ‘benefit’ or ‘form of Federal assistance’ under that same sub-section.” Bahel argues accordingly that Section 666 cannot reach the conduct at issue in this case. We disagree. A. Application of Section 666 to the U.N. Title 18 U.S.C. § 666 makes it a crime for “an agent of an organization” to “corruptly solicitf] or demand[] for the benefit of any person, or accept[ ] or agree[ ] to accept, anything of value from any person, intending to be influenced or rewarded in connection with any business, transaction, or series of transactions of such organization ... involving any thing of value of $5,000 or more[.]” To prosecute an organization’s agent under 18 U.S.C. § 666, the organization must “receive[ ], in any one year period, benefits in excess of $10,000 under a Federal program involving a grant, contract, subsidy, loan, guarantee, insurance, or other form of Federal assistance.” 18 U.S.C. § 666(b) (emphasis added). In United States v. Zyskind, 118 F.3d 113 (2d Cir.1997), we construed a “Federal program” to mean “there must exist a specific statutory scheme authorizing the Federal assistance in order to promote or achieve certain policy objectives.” Id. at 115 (internal quotation marks omitted) (holding that 38 U.S.C. §§ 301 et seq. was a federal program insofar as it authorized payment of federal benefits to United States’ veterans). Thus, there is a “federal program” for the purposes of Section 666 whenever there is a specific statutory scheme that authorizes payments thereunder for the purposes of promoting or achieving the policy objectives of the United States. The Supreme Court has provided additional guidance on determining what constitutes a “benefit” for the purposes of Section 666. In Fischer v. United States, 529 U.S. 667, 120 S.Ct. 1780, 146 L.Ed.2d 707 (2000), the defendant was convicted under Section 666 for defrauding a hospital that had received Medicare funds. Id. at 670, 120 S.Ct. 1780. On appeal, the defendant argued that the Medicare program provided “benefits” only to patients who received subsidized medical care, and not to hospitals, which merely received reimbursements from the government for services rendered. Id. at 676, 120 S.Ct. 1780. The Supreme Court disagreed, noting that: To determine whether an organization participating in a federal assistance program receives “benefits,” an examination must be undertaken of the program’s structure, operation, and purpose. The inquiry should examine the conditions under which the organization receives the federal payments. The answer could depend, as it does here, on whether the recipient’s own operations are one of the reasons for maintaining the program. Id. at 681, 120 S.Ct. 1780. Applying this approach, the Supreme Court determined that Medicare payments constituted a “benefit” because the federal funds provided an advantage for both the patient who received the medical care, as well as for the hospital; such payments ensured the hospital’s continued viability and thus advanced the policy objectives of the federal government. Id. at 679-80,120 S.Ct. 1780. The Court wrote: “the payments might have similarities to payments an insurer would remit to a hospital quite without regard to the Medicare program,” id. at 679, 120 S.Ct. 1780, in which case they might be considered exempt under Section 666(c), which removes from the statute’s coverage any “bona fide salary, wages, fees, or other compensation paid, or expenses paid or reimbursed, in the usual course of business,” 18 U.S.C. § 666(c). However, the Government would not make any of the payments at issue in Fischer “unless the hospital eomplie[d] with its intricate regulatory scheme,” 529 U.S. at 679, 120 S.Ct. 1780. Thus, the Supreme Court noted, “[t]he payments are made not simply to reimburse for treatment of qualifying patients but to assist the hospital in making available and maintaining a certain level and quality of medical care, all in the interest of both the hospital and the greater community.” Id. at 679-80, 120 S.Ct. 1780. The payments, therefore, could be considered “benefits” subject to the strictures of Section 666. On the facts of this case, the United Nations Participation Act (“U.N. Participation Act”), 22 U.S.C. § 287e, which authorizes payment of the United States’ dues to the U.N., can be considered to establish a “benefit” program much as the Medicare Act was considered to establish a benefit program in Fischer. Through the U.N. Participation Act, Congress has authorized appropriations of “such sums as may be necessary for the payment by the United States for its share of expenses of the Organization as apportioned by the General Assembly.” 22 U.S.C. § 287e. Because Congress authorized payments through the U.N. Participation Act, the United States’ payments to the U.N. are made are made under “a specific statutory scheme” that aims to advance the government’s foreign policy objectives, specifically, the policy of participating in collective endeavors to secure the benefits of world peace. Accord Zyskind, 118 F.3d at 115. Further indicative of a benefits program, the United States’ funding of the U.N., like the Medicare funding at issue in Fischer, is subject to several conditions designed in part to promote broader objectives related to national security while ensuring that any money contributed to the U.N. is responsibly expended and accounted for. Cf. Fischer, 529 U.S. at 677-78, 120 S.Ct. 1780. For example, through the United Nations Reform Act of 1999, see Consolidated Appropriations Act 2000, Pub.L. No. 106-113, §§ 901-952, 113 Stat. 1501, 1501A-475-485 (1999), Congress established a number of restrictions that are imposed on the U.N. as a condition of federal funding. These include (1) requiring that the U.N. maintain a balanced budget, see § 941(b)(3); (2) requiring that the U.N. conduct evaluations of its programs and make recommendations about which programs should be terminated, see id. § 941(b)(4); (3) capping the growth of the budgets of U.N. agencies, see id. § 941(b)(8), (10); (4) preventing the U.N. from borrowing from outside lenders, see id. § 921(a)(7)(A); and (5) limiting the United States’ contribution to the U.N. to an amount below what the U.N. had assessed, see id. §§ 931(b), 941(b)(1). The U.N. Reform Act also sets forth a host of anti-corruption measures that the U.N. is required to implement. For example, (1) each U.N. agency must have an inspector general; (2) the U.N. must maintain whistle-blower protections; (3) there must be procedures in place to ensure that the U.N. complies with the Inspector Generals; (4) the U.N. must permit member states to access any report issued by the Inspector Generals; and (5) the U.N. must guarantee that the United States General Accounting Office has access to the U.N.’s financial data in order to perform audits of U.N. operations. See id. § 941(b)(2), (6). The U.N. Reform Act further regulates the U.N.’s staff and requires the U.N. to implement policies to ensure that all staff are appointed on the basis of merit, maintain a code of conduct, require senior employees to make financial disclosures, impose rules against nepotism, and maintain a personnel evaluation system. See id. § 941(b)(7). Finally, in addition to the U.N. Reform Act, Congress has adopted certain other measures designed to regulate the U.N.’s activities. These include the KassebaumSolomon Amendment to the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for fiscal years 1986 and 1987, which required the U.N. to change its internal voting mechanisms to ensure that voting rights were proportionate to the financial contributions of each member state and to alter the previous requirement that U.N. staff return their salaries to their home governments. See Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1986 and 1987, Pub.L. No. 99-93, §§ 143, 151, 99 Stat. 405, 424, 428 (1985) (codified as notes to 22 U.S.C. § 287e); see also Department of State Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1982 and 1983, Pub.L. No. 97-241, § 109, 96 Stat. 273, 276 (1982) (codified as note to 22 U.S.C. § 287r) (prohibiting contributions to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization “if that organization implements any policy or procedure ... to censor or otherwise restrict the free flow of information within or among countries ----”); Department of State Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1984 and 1985, Pub.L. No. 98-164, § 115, 97 Stat. 1017, 1021 (1983) (codified as note to 22 U.S.C. § 287) (providing that the United States shall not participate in the U.N. if Israel is illegally expelled as a member organization); Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2002, Pub.L. No. 107-77, § 404, 115 Stat. 748, 789 (2001) (codified as note to 22 U.S.C. § 287e) (prohibiting the U.N. from establishing a system of taxation for the internet or international currency transactions); Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1994 and 1995, Pub.L. No. 103-236, § 410, 108 Stat. 382, 454 (1994) (codified as note to 22 U.S.C. § 287e) (prohibiting the U.N. from granting diplomatic recognition to entities that do not meet the internationally recognized attributes of statehood); Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1990 and 1991, Pub.L. No. 101-246, § 414,104 Stat. 15, 78 (1990) (codified as note to 22 U.S.C. § 287e) (providing that dues paid by the United States will not be available to the U.N. if it accords the Palestine Liberation Organization the same standing as a member state). The above restrictions, which are tied directly to funding, make clear that the United States’ payment of dues to the U.N., similar to Medicare funding, “provide[s] benefits extending beyond isolated, point-of-sale ... transactions,” Fischer, 529 U.S. at 681, 120 S.Ct. 1780 (emphasis added). That is, the U.N. is not a contractor and funding to the U.N. is not merely payment for goods and services provided to the United States. Rather, the funding provided to the U.N. by the United States fulfills “significant purposes beyond performance of an immediate transaction,” including the advancement of policy goals. Id. at 680, 120 S.Ct. 1780. And here, as in Fischer, the “Government has a legitimate and significant interest in prohibiting financial fraud or acts of bribery being perpetuated” at the organization receiving federal funds. Id. at 681, 120 S.Ct. 1780. Bahel argues that, regardless of whether the United States’ payments to the U.N. can be considered “benefits,” the payment of dues to the U.N. cannot constitute a “federal program” as that phrase is used in Section 666, because the United States agreed in a treaty (i.e., the United Nations Charter) to make such payments to the U.N. However, there is no question that a federal statute duly enacted by Congress, the U.N. Participation Act, is what authorizes the payment of the United States’ dues to the U.N. Under the principles articulated in Zyskind, this is sufficient to classify the U.N. Participation Act as a “federal program.” See 118 F.3d at 115. Moreover, as a constitutional matter, the United States cannot provide any funds to the U.N. without an express and independent authorization by Congress. See U.S. Const, art. I, § 8, cl. 1. Indeed, in order for a treaty to be self-executing, and thus not require independent action from Congress, the treaty’s terms must reflect such an intention by both the President, who negotiated it, and the Senate, which provided its advice and consent. See Medellin v. Texas, 552 U.S. 491, 519, 128 S.Ct. 1346, 170 L.Ed.2d 190 (2008) (distinguishing Comegys v. Vasse, 26 U.S. 193, 1 Pet. 193, 7 L.Ed. 108 (1828), as “standing] only for the modest principle that the terms of a treaty control the outcome of a case”); accord Brzak v. United Nations, 597 F.3d 107, 111 (2d Cir.2010) (“In determining whether a treaty is self-executing, we look to the text, the negotiation and drafting history, and the postratification understanding of the signatory nations.”); Restatement (Third) of Foreign Relations Law § 111 cmt. i (“Constitutional restraints on self-executing character of international agreement: An international agreement cannot take effect as domestic law without implementation by Congress if the agreement would achieve what lies within the exclusive law-making power of Congress under the Constitution. Thus, an international agreement providing for the payment of money by the United States requires an appropriation of funds by Congress in order to effect the payment required by the agreement.”). The text of Articles 17 and 19 of the U.N. Charter reflect no such understanding. Article 17 provides that “[t]he expenses of the [U.N.] shall be borne by the Members as apportioned by the General Assembly.” U.N. Charter art. 17, para. 2. Article 19 provides that the remedy for a breach of the obligation to pay dues is the loss of a member’s vote in the General Assembly. Id. art. 19. As the Government points out, the fact that the U.N. Charter provides for a diplomatic remedy in the event of a nation’s non-compliance with its Charter obligations strongly suggests that the dues provision of the United Nations Charter was not meant to be self-executing. Further, as the Supreme Court explained in Medellin v. Texas, the absence of mandatory language (i.e., “must” or “shall”) indicates that a particular provision is not a self-executing directive. 552 U.S. at 508, 128 S.Ct. 1346 (failure to include mandatory terms in Article 94 of the U.N. Charter, including incorporation of directives “shall” or “must,” indicated that Article 94 was not a “directive”). Accordingly, we conclude that the payment of the United States’ dues to the U.N. is a “Federal program,” because there is a specific statutory scheme authorizing the assistance, i.e., the U.N. Participation Act. Further, the U.N. Participation Act plainly seeks to promote the United States’ foreign policy objectives, and thus is properly considered a “benefit” subject to the strictures of 18 U.S.C. § 666. Therefore, we reject Bahel’s argument that Section 666 cannot reach employees of the United Nations. B. Bahel’s As-Applied Challenge to Section 666 Bahel challenges Section 666 on as-applied constitutional grounds, arguing that the statute is unconstitutional as applied to him because Congress did not exercise its spending power to bind the United States to its treaty obligations under the U.N. Charter. As explained above, Bahel’s as-applied challenge to Section 666 is a variation on his argument that the U.N. does not receive benefits under a federal program because the United States is obligated by treaty to pay U.N. dues. This argument fails for one fundamental reason: Congress has the power to grant or revoke federal funding to the U.N. based on its independent policy judgments; therefore, the allocation of federal funding to the U.N. is an exercise of the spending power. See Sabri v. United States, 541 U.S. 600, 605, 124 S.Ct. 1941, 158 L.Ed.2d 891 (2004). It is well-settled that “Congress has authority under the Spending Clause to appropriate federal moneys to promote the general welfare, and it has corresponding authority under the Necessary and Proper Clause to see to it that taxpayer dollars appropriated under that power are in fact spent for the general welfare, and not frittered away in graft or on projects undermined when funds are siphoned off or corrupt public officers are derelict about demanding value for dollars.” Id. (internal citations omitted). Pursuant to this principle, a number of officials of non-governmental organizations have been prosecuted under Section 666 in various jurisdictions across the country. See, e.g., Fischer v. United States, 529 U.S. 667, 120 S.Ct. 1780, 146 L.Ed.2d 707 (2000) (executive of medical consulting firm); United States v. Hildenbrand, 527 F.3d 466 (5th Cir.2008) (president of construction company doing business with a nonprofit housing organization); United States v. Buck, 324 F.3d 786 (5th Cir.2003) (executive of non-profit rural development organization); United States v. Edgar, 304 F.3d 1320 (11th Cir.2002) (executive officers of hospital); United States v. Dubón-Otero, 292 F.3d 1 (1st Cir.2002) (lawyer and doctor who were directors for health services corporation); United States v. Neighbors, 23 F.3d 306 (10th Cir.1994) (pharmacist at clinic run by charitable community health organization). We see no principled basis on which to distinguish congressional authorization of the payment U.N. dues from federal monies flowing to these non-governmental organizations. Accordingly, Bahel’s as-applied constitutional challenge to Section 666 fails. III. Honest Services Fraud Bahel next argues that he was improperly charged with honest services fraud for a number of different reasons, each of which is outlined below. In relevant part, the indictment included four counts of honest services fraud: Counts One and Two charged Bahel with defrauding the U.N. of its intangible right to his honest services facilitated by his use of the mails in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1346, and Counts Three and Four charged Bahel with defrauding the U.N. of its intangible right to his honest services facilitated by his use of interstate wire communications, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1343 and 1346. In Skilling v. United States, — U.S. -, 130 S.Ct. 2896, 177 L.Ed.2d 619 (2010), the decision for which we held this appeal in abeyance, the Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of the honest services fraud statute codified at 18 U.S.C. § 1346. That case involved the actions of Jeffrey Skilling, a longtime Enron officer, and Enron’s chief executive officer from February until August 2001 (when he resigned). Id. at 2907. During his time at Enron, Skilling was alleged to have “profited from the fraudulent scheme ... through the receipt of salary and other bonuses, ... and through the sale of approximately $200 million in Enron stock, which netted him $89 million.” Id. at 2934 (internal quotation marks). Less than four months after Skilling resigned from Enron, the company declared bankruptcy. Id. at 2907. The indictment charged Skilling “with conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud; in particular, it alleged that Skilling had sought to ‘depriv[e] Enron and its shareholders of the intangible right of [his] honest services.’” Id. at 2908. Relevant to the honest services charge, Skilling was alleged to have “conspired] to defraud Enron’s shareholders by misrepresenting the company’s fiscal health, thereby artificially inflating its stock price.” Id. at 2934. Notably, however, “Skilling [never] solicited or accepted side payments from a third party in exchange for making these misrepresentations.” Id. In determining the scope and constitutionality of the honest services statute, the Supreme Court adopted a limiting construction, explaining that “[t]o preserve the statute without transgressing constitutional limitations,” Section 1346 could not reach Skilling’s conduct. Id. at 2931. Therefore, the Court held that Section 1346 criminalizes only “fraudulent schemes to deprive another of honest services through bribes or kickbacks.... ” Id. at 2928. Defining the scope of “bribes and kickbacks,” the Supreme Court wrote that the statute’s “prohibition on bribes and kickbacks draws content not only from the pre-McNally case law, but also from federal statutes proscribing — and defining— similar crimes.” Id. at 2933 (citing 18 U.S.C. §§ 201(b), 666(a)(2); 41 U.S.C. § 52(2)). In reaching this holding, the Supreme Court rejected the Government’s argument that § 1346 should also encompass “undisclosed self-dealing by a public official ... [such as] the taking of official action by the [official] that furthers his own undisclosed financial interests while purporting to act in the interests of those to whom he owes a fiduciary duty.” Id. at 2932 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Because the Government in Skilling did not allege that Skilling accepted bribes or kickbacks, but rather that he was engaged in a pattern of self-dealing, the Supreme Court determined that Skilling’s honest services fraud conviction was flawed and vacated the Fifth Circuit’s affirmance of Skilling’s conspiracy conviction. Id. at 2934-35. Bahel argues for the first time on appeal that Section 1346 cannot apply to foreign employees of the U.N. Specifically, he asserts that Section 1346 has only been applied to government or private sector employees, not employees of international organizations. See, e.g., United States v. Ganim, 510 F.3d 134 (2d Cir.2007) (applying Section 1346 to former mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut). In support of his argument, Bahel cites United States v. Giffen, 326 F.Supp.2d 497 (S.D.N.Y.2004), United States v. Lazarenko, No. 00 Cr. 284 (N.D.Cal. May 7, 2004), and this Court’s decision in United States v. Rybicki, 354 F.3d 124 (2d Cir.2003) (en banc). Although we agree with Bahel that Section 1346 is not limitless, we hold that it is broad enough to encompass Bahel’s actions and neither Giffen nor Lazarenko nor Rybicki provides otherwise. Bahel argues that this Court’s holding in Rybicki stands for the proposition that honest services fraud is effectively limited to the identity of the actors prosecuted in the pr e-McNally caselaw. That is, he states that because “[n]one of [the preMcNally ] cases extended an ‘honest services’ theory of fraud to an international setting involving foreign nationals,” Rybicki means that he, as a foreign national, cannot be prosecuted for honest services fraud under Section 1346. We disagree. Rybicki, like Skilling, stands for the proposition that fraud actionable under Section 1346 is limited to the nature of the offenses prosecuted in the pr e-McNally cases (i.e., bribery and kickback schemes) — not the identity of the actors involved in those cases. See Rybicki, 354 F.3d at 138-44; see also Skilling, 130 S.Ct. at 2931 (“To preserve the statute without transgressing constitutional limitations, we now hold that § 1346 criminalizes only the bribe-and-kickback core of the pre-McNally case law.” (emphasis in original)). United States v. Giffen is equally unhelpful to Bahel’s position. That case involved a United States citizen who was charged with honest services fraud for bribing a government official from the Republic of Kazakhstan, resulting in the deprivation of honest services for Kazakh citizens. 326 F.Supp.2d at 499-500. The district court, finding a “total absence of ... precedent supporting the Government’s overseas application of the intangible rights theory,” id. at 505, ruled that “Congress did not intend that the intangible right to honest services encompass bribery of foreign officials in foreign countries,” id. at 506. Although Bahel urges to the contrary, Giffen does not dictate the outcome of this case, not only because this Court has not itself so construed Section 1346, but also because, unlike in Giffen, the conduct at issue in this case took place within the territorial United States, and the victim was — not a foreign government’s citizens — but the United Nations, an organization headquartered in the United States, entitled to defendant’s honest services in the United States, and receiving its largest financial contributions from the United States. United States v. Lazarenko is also distinguishable. That case, which was cited in Giffen, involved a former prime minister of the Republic of Ukraine, who was charged with depriving Ukranian citizens of the honest services of their government officials. No. 00 Cr. 284, at *1-2. At the close of evidence, the district court dismissed, inter alia, two counts of honest services fraud charged in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1343, 1346. Id. at *3-4. In so doing, the district court stated that, in order to establish honest services fraud, the Government would have had to plead and prove “an analogous violation of Ukraine law.” Id. at *4. This proposition has since been rejected by the Ninth Circuit. See United States v. Weyhrauch, 548 F.3d 1237 (9th Cir.2008), vacated and remanded on other grounds by — U.S. -, 130 S.Ct. 2971, 177 L.Ed.2d 705 (2010) (vacating in light of Skilling). That is, the Ninth Circuit has rejected the notion that a deprivation of honest services requires a underlying violation of state law in a domestic case. Id. at 1245 (“In short, we have never limited the reach of the federal fraud statutes only to conduct that violates state law.”). Lazarenko is also at odds with precedent in our Circuit. See United States v. Margiotta, 688 F.2d 108, 124 (2d Cir.1982) (“At the outset, we reject the contention that absent a showing of a violation of New York statute or a duty imposed by New York law, a defendant may not be found guilty of using the mails in furtherance of a scheme to defraud on the basis of a breach of a fiduciary duty to the citizenry.”), overruled on other grounds by McNally v. United States, 483 U.S. 350, 107 S.Ct. 2875, 97 L.Ed.2d 292 (1987); see also United States v. Murphy