AG to ask tougher penalties for small frauds
Posted: Thursday, November 20, 2008
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning will ask the Legislature next year to allow prosecutors to combine the losses of multiple victims of financial crime in a single charge.
"If you steal $1 from 1,500 people ... it has to be charged as 1,500 misdemeanors," Bruning said. "It's hard to argue that this conduct is less harmful than someone who steals $1,500."
Under current law, Bruning couldn't charge a gas station owner with a felony for selling gas with ethanol in it at the higher, unleaded price.
Bruning could only charge the station owner with misdemeanors. For a felony, the total stolen must be at least $1,500, and the amounts stolen from each gas station customer couldn't be added together to qualify as a felony.
Bruning said changing the law would also help prosecutors go after online scam artists.
The Internet has helped scams that steal small amounts from lots of people flourish, Bruning said. If a Web site or e-mail offers a false deal that scams $20 out of a person, and 10,000 fall for it, the scam artist still wouldn't be charged with a felony.
Changing the law would allow theft or fraud losses from multiple victims to be combined. Currently, multiple fraud or theft losses one person suffers can already be combined.
Missouri, Iowa and Kansas all already allow aggregation of multiple offenses, according to Bruning's office.
Gas station owner Tom Wiese pleaded guilty recently to five misdemeanor charges related to a scam to sell ethanol-blend gasoline at higher unleaded prices for well over a year. He owns Scribner Express and Decatur Express in those cities.
Wiese cooperated with investigators and was sentenced to pay fines of up to $4,000 plus court costs. Three of the charges were misdemeanor theft by deception, which carry a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. The other two charges, criminal simulation and deceptive advertising, can net an offender three months in jail and a $500 fine.
So someone like Wiese, who over a series of months bilked people out of $5 here and $10 there, gets off easier than someone who steals a large sum from one person at one time. Felony theft of more than $1,500 carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.
Bruning could have charged Wiese with hundreds of different misdemeanor theft charges for each of the people he overcharged.
But Bruning said prosecuting hundreds or thousands of smaller theft charges would be costly and time-consuming. And it might not necessarily result in a tougher penalty because Bruning said most judges would order the misdemeanor sentences to run concurrently.
On the Net:
Nebraska attorney general: http://www.ago.state.ne.us
Nebraska Legislature: www.nebraskalegislature.gov
"If you steal $1 from 1,500 people ... it has to be charged as 1,500 misdemeanors," Bruning said. "It's hard to argue that this conduct is less harmful than someone who steals $1,500."
Under current law, Bruning couldn't charge a gas station owner with a felony for selling gas with ethanol in it at the higher, unleaded price.
Bruning could only charge the station owner with misdemeanors. For a felony, the total stolen must be at least $1,500, and the amounts stolen from each gas station customer couldn't be added together to qualify as a felony.
Bruning said changing the law would also help prosecutors go after online scam artists.
The Internet has helped scams that steal small amounts from lots of people flourish, Bruning said. If a Web site or e-mail offers a false deal that scams $20 out of a person, and 10,000 fall for it, the scam artist still wouldn't be charged with a felony.
Changing the law would allow theft or fraud losses from multiple victims to be combined. Currently, multiple fraud or theft losses one person suffers can already be combined.
Missouri, Iowa and Kansas all already allow aggregation of multiple offenses, according to Bruning's office.
Gas station owner Tom Wiese pleaded guilty recently to five misdemeanor charges related to a scam to sell ethanol-blend gasoline at higher unleaded prices for well over a year. He owns Scribner Express and Decatur Express in those cities.
Wiese cooperated with investigators and was sentenced to pay fines of up to $4,000 plus court costs. Three of the charges were misdemeanor theft by deception, which carry a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. The other two charges, criminal simulation and deceptive advertising, can net an offender three months in jail and a $500 fine.
So someone like Wiese, who over a series of months bilked people out of $5 here and $10 there, gets off easier than someone who steals a large sum from one person at one time. Felony theft of more than $1,500 carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.
Bruning could have charged Wiese with hundreds of different misdemeanor theft charges for each of the people he overcharged.
But Bruning said prosecuting hundreds or thousands of smaller theft charges would be costly and time-consuming. And it might not necessarily result in a tougher penalty because Bruning said most judges would order the misdemeanor sentences to run concurrently.
On the Net:
Nebraska attorney general: http://www.ago.state.ne.us
Nebraska Legislature: www.nebraskalegislature.gov
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