Following Scheidler II and Gotti, the key inquiry in this Circuit for the purposes of Hobbs Act extortion has been "whether the defendant is (1) alleged to have carried out (or in the case of attempted extortion, attempted to carry out) the deprivation of a property right from another, with (2) the intent to exercise, sell, transfer, or take some other analogous action with respect to that right." Gotti, 459 F.3d at 324; United States v. Cain, 671 F.3d 271, 282-83 (2d Cir. 2012), cert denied, 132 S. Ct. 1872 (2012); see also United States v. Shi Xing Dong, 513 Fed. App'x 70, 72 (2d Cir. 2013); United States v. Hui Chen, 350 Fed. App'x 520, 522-23 (2d Cir. 2009), cert denied, 559 U.S. 961 (2010). Transferable property has been found to include union members' rights to free speech and democratic participation in union affairs where defendants intended to exercise those rights for themselves, Gotti, 459 F.3d at 325; an employee's salary and right to be employed where defendants sought to replace that employee with their own preferred candidate, id. at 326; and "intangible property rights to make business decisions . . . free from outside pressure" where defendants sought not to shut down the business, but to make themselves silent partners, id. at 327.

On October 27, 2009, the Second Circuit rejected Chen's arguments and affirmed. See United States v. Hui Chen, 350 Fed. App'x 520 (2d Cir. 2009). Chen did not file a petition for a writ of certiorari.

Likewise, in § 982(a)(7), "gross proceeds" is properly interpreted to include the total amount of money brought in through the fraudulent activity, with no costs deducted or set-offs applied. See United States v. Hui Chen, 350 F. App'x 520, 523-24 (2d Cir. 2009) (unpublished) (concluding that because the applicable statute required the forfeiture of "gross proceeds," "there is no merit to defendant's argument that she should be permitted to subtract the market value of the 'services' she provided"). Accordingly, the district court did not err in ordering forfeiture of the total amount Poulin received through fraudulent bills.