United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellant/cross-Appellee v. Kurt Henry Van Engel, Defendant-Appellee/cross-Appellant

POSNER, Chief Judge.

The increase in the number of federal prosecutors in recent years has brought in its train problems of quality control. These problems led the district judge in this case to dismiss a number of counts of a fraud indictment, 809 F.Supp. 1360 (E.D.Wis.1992), precipitating this appeal by the government under 18 U.S.C. § 3731 and a cross-appeal by the defendant asking us to throw out the entire indictment.

Kurt Van Engel, the defendant, a wholesale distributor of produce, fell out with his partners, Baake and Zingale. They brought civil RICO suits against him alleging as…