Yahoo! The exhibits aren’t hearsay.

United States v. Ayelotan affirmed the conviction of three cybercriminals who stole money with “a sprawling international romance scam.” In addition to using the word “fauxmance” for the first time in a Fifth Circuit opinion, and among other holdings, the Court rejected hearsay objections to a number of emails related to the scheme:

• For each email, the transmittal records maintained by Google and Yahoo! qualified as business records;
• The statements were not offered to prove the truth of the matter of asserted; rather, they were “paradigmatic nonhearsay” in the form of “the operative words of the criminal action”;
• And the “remaining content . . . updates between the coconspirators about their criminal scheme–was admissible as opposing party and coconspirator statements under Rule 801(d).”

No. 17-60397 (March 4, 2019).