McCoy Law Firm

Oklahoma Fraud Defined

Fraud includes any act or omission that is intended to deceive another party in order to influence him or her. In addition, the influenced party must have reasonably relied on the fraud to his or her own detriment.

Fraud may consists of:

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A misrepresentation made by an individual with actual or constructive knowledge of the false nature of such misrepresentation;

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A misrepresentation made by an individual who has no reasonable basis in fact for the misrepresentation;

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An affirmative act of concealing something known to be true;

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A promise made by an individual who has no actual intention of performing such;

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Silence, or omission, in the face of a duty to disclose certain information; or

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Any other act or omission intended to deceive another.

The penalties for fraud in Oklahoma generally relate to the amount of money or property that is procured as a result of the fraudulent activity. Usually, if a Defendant is convicted of defrauding the victim of $500 or less, he or she will only receive a misdemeanor conviction and face up to one year in jail. If the amount is greater than $1,000, the conviction most likely will be a felony, and the defendant could face five years in prison, not to mention felony conviction consequences. Often times a condition of conviction of fraud will be that the Defendant must pay restitution to the victim.

In criminal law, a felony is a category of crimes that are often classified as the most serious types of offenses. The main characteristic of a felony is that being found guilty of a felony will result in incarceration for at least one year. Also, the imprisonment will be served in a prison facility rather than a county or local jail establishment. Criminal fines may also be imposed for felony charges, often in the amounts of thousands of dollars.