Common Penalties For Committing A Fraud

Watching how we all live in an age of progressive technologies as well as various innovative solutions, it is absolutely no wonder that the criminal activities are becoming more and more advanced as well as genuinely sophisticated every year.

Sure enough, seeing how quickly the technology is advancing forward, it is only natural that new and more refined ways of committing fraud appear. One way or the other, you may easily be charged with committing numerous cases of fraud and all of those will be different. In addition, fraud may range from a minor misdemeanor and all the way up to a genuine felony in the State of California.

To make things a bit more understandable, we are going to provide you with a pretty simplified and yet quite accurate list of different categories of charges. The list will contain the charges, possible penalties as well as possible fraud actions that may fall under the category. Hence, in case that you or perhaps your loved ones were charged with fraud, this is what you may be facing in the future. Of course, those penalties are all strictly suggestive. After all, the judge is going to take plenty of factors in consideration when sentencing the defendant. First of all, we are talking about the value of the property that was obtained due to the fraudulent actions, the age of the victims as well as any previous criminal convictions.

Class 1 Misdemeanor:

Potential penalties: up to 18 months in prison; up to $5,000 in fines

Associated Crimes:

• Criminal possession of a single financial device
• Criminal possession of a document of identification
• Presenting false info on an application or renewal
• Second degree of forgery
• Embezzlement of goods or property, which may be valued between $500 and $1,000
• Credit card fraud – not more than $1,000

Class 6 Felony

Potential penalties: up to 18 months in prison; up to $100,000 in fines

Associated Crimes: 

• Criminal impersonation 
• Criminal possession of two or several more financial devices 
• Criminal possession of two or several more documents of identification 

Class 5 Felony

Potential: up to 3 years in prison; up to $100,000 in fines

Associated Crimes:

• Insurance fraud 
• Criminal possession of four or several more financial devices 
• Possession of identity theft tools with intent to commit criminal actions 
• Gathering ID info via deception 
• First degree forgery 
• Embezzlement of public money 
• Credit card fraud – up to $20,000 

Class 4 Felony

Potential penalties: up to 6 years in prison; up to $500,000 in fines

Associated Crimes:

• Identity theft
• Embezzlement of goods or property valued up to $20,000

Class 3 Felony

Potential penalties: up to 12 years in prison; up to $750,000 in fines

Associated Crimes:

• Embezzlement of goods or property that may be valued over $20,000 
• Social Securities fraud 
• Money laundering
• Credit card fraud – over $20,000  

Charges may be different in other states, but the above-mentioned list is depicting how things work in the state of California. Also, charges may have a very negative impact on your day to day living, And we are not even talking about the fines and times in jail. After all, you risk losing your job, your career, your reputation. In addition, the best prosecutors may be working against you, since they were hired by a huge corporation or insurance company. The very best you can do in a situation like this would be getting in touch with a qualified as well as genuinely experience Los Angeles criminal defense attorney at the earliest opportunity. After all, only a good attorney will know how to help you in such a challenging situation indeed.

The Los Angeles Criminal Defense Specialists