Federal Law Definitions

Below is a list of federal law definitions for your knowledge.

Fraud  
A knowing misrepresentation of the truth or concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her detriment.  
 
Actual Fraud  
A concealment or false representation through a statement or conduct that injures another who relies on it in acting.  
 
Bank Fraud  
The criminal offense of knowingly executing, or attempting to execute, a scheme or artifice to defraud a financial institution, or to obtain property owned by or under the control of a financial institution, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representation, or promises.  
 
Bankruptcy Fraud  
The act of filing a false bankruptcy claim.  
 
Civil Fraud  
An intentional—but not willful—evasion of taxes.  
 
Constructive Fraud  
Unintentional deception or misrepresentation that causes injury to another.  
 
Credit Card Fraud  
Examples of Credit Card Fraud include: Illegal counterfeiting of credit cards, the use of lost or stolen credit cards, and obtaining credit cards fraudulently through the mail.  
 
Criminal Fraud  
The willful evasion of taxes accomplished by filing a fraudulent tax return.  
 
Extrinsic Fraud  
Deception that is collateral to the issues being considered in the case; intentional misrepresentation or deceptive behavior outside the transaction itself, depriving one party of informed consent or full participation.  
 
Health Care Fraud  
Any scheme involving the health care industry that is designed for illegal financial gain, including: Billing for services not rendered, inflating the cost of the service provided, the deliberate sale of medically unnecessary services, and the payment of "kickbacks," or illegal payments designed to guarantee awarding of a contract or the exclusive right to provide a service.  
 
Insurance Fraud  
Fraud committed against an insurer, as when an insured lies on a policy application or fabricates a claim.  
 
Intrinsic Fraud  
Deception that pertains to an issue involved in an original action.  Examples include the use of fabricated evidence, a false return of service, perjured testimony, and false receipts or other commercial documents.  
 
Investment Fraud  
This form of fraud occurs when an adviser, stockbroker, or brokerage firm offers investors biased, unfounded, or contradictory investment advice out of a conflict of interest.  
 
Mail Fraud  
An act of fraud using the U.S. Postal Service, as in making false representations through the mail to obtain an economic advantage.  
 
Promissory Fraud  
A promise to perform made when the promiser had no intention of performing the promise.  
 
Securities Fraud  
The crime of knowingly making any materially misleading statement, or failing to disclose a material fact, in connection with the purchase or sale of a security.  
 
Wire Fraud  
An act of fraud using electronic communications, as by making false representations on the telephone to obtain money.  
 
Hate Crimes  
A hate crime, generally, refers to a crime committed not out of animosity toward a victim as an individual, but out of hostility toward the group to which the victim belongs.  
 
Homicide  
The killing of one person by another. This is the generic legal term for killing a person, whether lawfully or unlawfully. Unlawful homicide comprises the two crimes of murder and manslaughter.  
 
Criminal Homicide  
Homicide prohibited and punishable by law, such as murder or manslaughter.  
 
Excusable Homicide  
Homicide resulting from a person's lawful act, committed without intention to harm another.  
 
Justifiable Homicide  
The killing of another in self-defense when faced with the danger of death or serious bodily injury. (same as excusable homicide)  
 
Negligent Homicide  
Homicide resulting from the careless performance of a legal or illegal act in which the danger of death is apparent; the killing of a human being by criminal negligence.  
 
Reckless Homicide  
The unlawful killing of another person with conscious indifference toward that person's life.  
 
Vehicular Homicide  
The killing of another person by one's unlawful or negligent operation of a motor vehicle.  
 
Identity Theft  
Identity Theft primarily involves either "true name" or "account takeover" fraud. With "true name" someone uses a consumer's personal information to open new accounts in his or her name. With "account takeover" someone gains access to a person's existing account(s) and makes fraudulent charges. Another form of identity theft occurs when a criminal provides a victim's personal information to law enforcement when the criminal gets arrested. The victim may then have a criminal record or outstanding warrants attached to their name without even realizing it.  
 
Indecent Exposure  
An offensive display of one's own body in public, especially of the genitals.  
 
Lewdness  
Gross, wanton, and public indecency that is outlawed by many state statutes; a sexual act that the actor knows will likely be observed by someone who will be affronted or alarmed by it.  
 
Mayhem  
Dismemberment or permanent disfigurement.  
 
Manslaughter  
The unlawful killing of a human being without malice aforethought.  
 
Involuntary Manslaughter  
Homicide in which there is no intention to kill or do grievous bodily harm, but that is committed with criminal negligence or during the commission of a crime not included within the felony-murder rule.

Voluntary manslaughter  
An act of murder reduced to manslaughter because of extenuating circumstances such as adequate provocation (arousing the "heat of passion") or diminished capacity.  
 
Molestation  
1. The persecution or harassment of someone, as in the molestation of a witness. 2. The act of making unwanted and indecent advances to or on someone, especially for sexual gratification.  
 
Child Molestation  
Any indecent or sexual activity on, involving, or surrounding a child, usually under the age of 14.  
 
Money Laundering  
The federal crime of transferring illegally obtained money through legitimate persons or accounts so that its original source cannot be traced.  
 
Murder  
The killing of a human being with malice aforethought.  
 
Depraved-heart murder
A murder resulting from an act so reckless and careless of the safety of others that it demonstrates the perpetrator's complete lack of regard for human life.  
 
Felony Murder  
Murder that occurs during the commission of a felony.  
 
First-degree murder  
Murder that is willful, deliberate, or premeditated, or that is committed during the course of another serious felony (often limited to rape, kidnapping, robbery, burglary, or arson).  All murder perpetrated by poisoning or by lying in wait is considered first-degree murder.  
 
Second-degree murder  
Murder that is not aggravated by any of the circumstances of first-degree murder.  
 
Obscenity  
Any form of expression, such as a book, painting, photograph, movie, or play, that deals with sex in a way that is regarded as so offensive as to be beyond the protection of the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech. Under the most recent of the Supreme Court's efforts to define obscenity, the term applies to material that appeals to prurient interest, depicts or describes sexual conduct in a way that is patently offensive, and lacks "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value."  
 
Pandering  
1. The act or offense of recruiting a prostitute, finding a place of business for a prostitute, or soliciting customers for a prostitute. 2. The act or offense of selling or distributing textual or visual material openly advertised to appeal to the recipient's sexual interest.  
 
Perjury  
The act or an instance of a person's deliberately making material false or misleading statements while under oath.  
 
Pornography  
Pictures and/or writings of sexual activity intended solely to excite lascivious feelings of a particularly blatant and aberrational kind, such as acts involving children, animals, orgies, and all types of sexual intercourse.  
 
Prostitution  
The crime of engaging in sexual intercourse or other sexual activity for hire.  
 
Pyramid Schemes  
Pyramid Schemes may involve a structure that is laid out like a pyramid, with one person at the top, two persons on the next level, four on the next and eight on the next. The structure may also be circular with one person at the center, two on the next, four on the next and eight persons on the outer circle. The circular structure is merely a view of a pyramid looking from the top down.  
 
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)  
A federal statute enacted in 1970 and subsequently copied in many state statutes (informally called "Little Rico" statutes), designed to attack organized crime by providing special criminal penalties and civil liabilities for persons who engage in, or derive money from, repeated instances of certain types of crime.  
 
Rape  
Unlawful sexual activity with a person without consent and usually by force or threat of injury.  
 
Date Rape  
Rape committed by someone known to the victim, especially by the victim's social companion.  
 
Marital Rape  
A husband's sexual intercourse with his wife by force or without her consent.  
 
Statutory Rape  
Unlawful sexual intercourse with a person under the age of consent, regardless of whether it is against that person's will.  
 
Self-Defense  
The use of reasonable force against an aggressor by one who reasonably believes it necessary in order to avoid imminent bodily harm. Self-defense is a justification for conduct that would otherwise be a crime.  
 
Sexual Harassment  
A form of unlawful employment discrimination consisting of harassment of an employee or group of employees, usually women. This may take the form of requiring or seeking sexual favors as a condition of employment (quid pro quo harassment) or otherwise subjecting an employee to intimidation, ridicule, or insult because of her sex, whether or not the harassing conduct is sexual in nature.  
 
Sexual Offense  
General term used to describe a crime of a sexual nature.  
 
Sodomy  
A term varying in meaning from state to state, but generally referring to any type of sex act regarded by a legislature as "unnatural" or "perverted". In the narrowest and most traditional sense, the term refers to anal sexual intercourse between men, but it may extend to those or other acts between men and women (sometimes exempting married couples, sometimes not), or women and women, or people and animals. Also called a crime against nature, or an unnatural act.  
 
Stalking  
The act of threatening, harassing, or annoying someone, especially with the intent of placing the recipient in fear that an illegal act or an injury will be inflicted on the recipient or a member of the recipient's family or household.  
 
Tax Evasion  
The willful attempt to defeat or circumvent the tax law in order to illegally reduce one's tax liability.

Tax Fraud  
The crime of intentionally filing a false tax return or making other false statements under penalties of perjury to taxing authorities.  
 
Terrorism  
Politically motivated violence or intimidation directed against a civilian population by a subgroup within a population, by an outside group, or by clandestine agents of another country.  
 
Theft  
1. The felonious taking and removing of another's personal property with the intent to permanently deprive the true owner thereof; larceny. 2. Broadly, any act or instance of stealing, including larceny, burglary, embezzlement, and false pretenses. 

If you have been accused with any of the above, contact our firm toll free (888) 351-0157.