Bank Fraud: Lack of Intent Can Still Result in a Conviction

Bank fraud schemes and incidents occur often with and without any intent to actually defraud the bank involved in the criminal activity, and when facing certain charges, the prosecution does not need this intent to convict the person. It was in the Supreme Court in 2016 that the decision occurred to provide evidence without the necessary intent to defraud for convictions in these charges.
There are a number of crimes and state laws that regard the intent of an accused person as part of the ability to prosecute against him or her. However, in these illegal acts, the individual must have the willingness and intentional thought to commit the crime. However, when a defrauding a bank occurs, the person does not need to intend to actually cause this to occur. This may lead to anyone involved to include someone with no knowledge of what he or she becomes entangled in to face charges of bank fraud. This may then lead to a court case where the criminal charges convict him or her and sentencing will cause life-altering changes.

What Is Bank Fraud?

When someone either intentionally or unintentionally causes the money, assets or property within a bank or other financial institution to trade hands illegally, he or she may commit bank fraud. This could occur through deposits, funds in an account, the paper money or gold within a facility and even coins. The individual could pose as a bank official, steal records from the bank or steal the data from another individual. However, when the money changes hands illegally, the person may commit bank fraud. Generally, these crimes are intentional with knowledge that he or she commits them.

The Criminal Acts and the Accused

While a person may not need to intend to defraud a bank or other financial institution, he or she may have a connection without knowing it. This is possible when someone harbors the guilty person behind the crimes but is unaware that the other individual committed anything illegal. The criminal may use this person’s information to commit a crime, implicate him to throw off the authorities or convince the person to take part. It is in these situations that he or she will need to hire a criminal defense lawyer to defend against bank fraud charges. This evidence behind the crime may increase or decrease the chances of success.

Some accused individuals that face bank fraud charges may land in the case due to an intent to defraud a person but not the bank. The person may steal funds from another account, steal personal information that provides the means to take funds from an account or use a computer to hack into an account. When the person takes money with the intent to steal from another person, he or she may feel that this has little to do with defrauding the bank. However, the Bank Fraud Statute does have a clause in a second section that covers theft of another person’s assets as bank fraud.

Intentional Acts that Affect the Bank

There are several individuals that are willing to engage in criminal activity intentionally when it is against another person. However, many are unaware that this will reflect on the bank and may even constitute as bank fraud. Stealing the credentials to a bank account, transferring money from one account to another or causing a negative impact towards one account held by a bank could lead to bank fraud per the Bank Fraud Statute. Charges for defrauding a bank are possible when the intention was against a single individual instead of the financial institution. Then, the person may find himself or herself behind bars or paying hefty fines for the action.