With regards to the question, Howell has committed fraud. In this case, this can be regarded as a mail or wire fraud which is when one uses telephone or mail to defraud someone else.
In this case, Howell may be charged for the unauthorized use of the telephone for his personal use as he made a long-distance telephone calls through the telephone company’s computer- controlled switching system to solicit funding for a nonexistent business enterprise. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act helps address this type of fraud.
