How long is jail sentence for fraud?

[Scream2Death]

what is the minimum maximum sentence for bk fraud?

will they send you to the same prisons murderers/etc. go to?

is there probation? community cleanup instead of jail time? pleas?

anyone had any experience or knows anything about it?

i like to think of everything, thanks for the help!

[HHM]

Honestly, this is NOT/should NOT be something you need to worry about.

For certain violations, the max sentence is up to 5 years and $250,000 fine. However, some BK crimes fall under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines (Section 2B1.1) and can have a maximum of 30 years. The court takes into consideration the number of victims and the amount of financial loss to determine the prison sentence.

Here is an article that talks about what BK crimes actually are

http://68.72.75.1/abidata/online/lawrev/winter98/Tighe_wi98.html

It's a bit outdated, but you will get an idea.

[FreshLikeADaisy]

Scream, it occurs to me that bk fraud is a federal offense, just like the securities fraud that got Martha "It's A Good Thing" Stewart sent to the pen a couple years ago. She went to a prison that, while not supermax security, had all manner of offenders in it. I would guess that you would end up in a similar place, if you really had to take the chance and got busted.

I'm not in favor of anyone committing fraud in their filing, the consequences are just so not worth it, but... if you have your heart set on it, I can only tell you what I have always heard: "If you steal, steal a million; if you screw, screw the Queen."

Good luck...

[MomIcantFindmy]

I also heard that the word fraud was used very liberally in filing. While fraud may be a HUGE deal to you and me it is used sometimes to describe a situation in BK that is not completely clear.

[Scream2Death]

thanks the for help!

[HHM]

I also heard that the word fraud was used very liberally in filing. While fraud may be a HUGE deal to you and me it is used sometimes to describe a situation in BK that is not completely clear.

Correct, in BK there is "fraud" and then there is "FRAUD".

For BK criminal FRAUD, the debtor needs to have the ACTUAL intent to deceive the BK System.

The run of the mill BK Fraud (which 99.9% of the posts on this forum discuss) is where the debtor, typically, did not know better and did something stupid which they could have avoided if they did a little research. For example, the debtor sold their $10,000 car to their cousin for $1,000 before filing BK. The debtor's intent was to try to save the asset (and the debtor didn't do their research), but they weren't really unleashing a scheme to defraud creditors and misuse the BK system, so that transaction would not give rise to criminal liability. The typical remedy for regular BK fraud is that the trustee can avoid the transfer, the creditor has their debt declared non-dischargeable, and sometimes a BK will be dismissed with prejudice.