A bankruptcy fraud case usually begins inside your own case file. A trustee finds a transfer that is not in the schedules, a creditor writes to the U.S. Trustee, or a 341 answer does not match a bank record. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3057 the referral to the U.S. Attorney is mandatory. This page is for people under criminal investigation. We defend the accused. We do not file bankruptcy petitions.
AMC Defense Law defends people and companies accused of committing a federal crime in connection with a bankruptcy case. Debtors, principals of corporate debtors, officers, insiders who received transfers, and petition preparers.
We are a criminal defense firm. We do not file bankruptcy petitions, handle Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 filings, obtain discharges, or provide debt relief or credit counseling services. If that is what you need, you need a bankruptcy attorney.
If a trustee has referred your case, if the U.S. Trustee's office has asked questions the trustee did not ask, or if an agent has contacted you about a filing, that is the situation this practice handles.
Most federal fraud investigations begin when someone decides to open one. Bankruptcy fraud is different.
18 U.S.C. § 3057 requires that any judge, receiver, or trustee with reasonable grounds to believe a violation relating to insolvent debtors has been committed shall report all the facts and circumstances to the United States Attorney. The statute uses "shall." A Chapter 7 trustee who finds an unlisted transfer does not weigh whether to involve prosecutors. The referral is part of the job.
That structural fact is why bankruptcy fraud cases move from civil irritation to criminal exposure so quickly, and why the response to a trustee's questions matters long before anyone from the government has made contact.
The referral pipeline is well developed in Florida. The U.S. Trustee Program maintains criminal enforcement coordinators who package referrals for the United States Attorney's Office. In the Southern District of Florida, where consumer and small-business filings are heavy and asset concealment through real property and vehicles is a recurring pattern, those packages arrive already organized around the charged counts.
18 U.S.C. § 152 is the core, and it is nine offenses in one section. Each subsection is chargeable separately, and prosecutors routinely stack them from a single filing:
Each count carries up to 5 years.
18 U.S.C. § 157 charges the scheme itself. Filing a petition, or filing a document in a case, for the purpose of executing a scheme to defraud. It carries 5 years per count and is the provision used against multi-filing schemes, foreclosure rescue operations, and serial petitions filed to stall creditors.
18 U.S.C. § 153 covers embezzlement or transfer of estate property by a trustee, custodian, attorney, or other officer of the court. Five years per count.
18 U.S.C. § 1519 is the one that changes the exposure profile. Knowingly destroying, altering, or falsifying a record with intent to obstruct a federal case carries 20 years per count. Deleting files, shredding records, or backdating documents after a case opens converts a 5-year problem into a 20-year one.
18 U.S.C. § 1001 covers false statements to federal agents and agencies, at 5 years per count. 18 U.S.C. § 371 conspiracy brings in spouses, business partners, insiders who received transfers, and preparers.
18 U.S.C. § 3284 is the provision most defendants have never heard of and most need to know.
Concealment of a debtor's assets is deemed a continuing offense until the debtor is finally discharged or a discharge is denied. The limitations period does not begin to run until that point. A concealment committed at the filing does not start the clock at the filing. It starts at discharge.
The practical arithmetic: assets concealed in a 2021 petition, discharge entered in 2023, five-year period running to 2028. Debtors who assume a closed case is a closed matter are frequently wrong.
Intent is the element, and it is contestable. Every § 152 offense requires that the act be knowing and fraudulent. Bankruptcy schedules are dense. Form 106 and Form 107 ask for years of history across dozens of categories. Omissions happen because a debtor did not understand a question, because a preparer did not ask, or because an asset was disclosed in one place and not another. An omission is not automatically a concealment.
Materiality matters on false oath counts. A false statement in the schedules or at the 341 meeting has to bear a relationship to the debtor's business transactions, the estate, the discovery of assets, or the existence and disposition of property. Not every inaccuracy meets that standard.
Valuation disputes are not crimes. Listing a business interest, a piece of real property, or a closely held company at a number the trustee disagrees with is a valuation dispute. Prosecutors sometimes charge it as concealment. Appraisal evidence and the debtor's contemporaneous basis for the figure defeat that theory.
Reliance on the preparer is a real defense. Where bankruptcy counsel or a petition preparer assembled the schedules, the file, the intake documents, and the billing records show what the debtor provided and what the preparer asked. We obtain that record.
Loss drives the sentence. Under U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1, the offense level rises with the loss figure. In bankruptcy cases the government sometimes reaches for the total debt in the case. The correct measure is what creditors actually lost because of the concealment, and assets recovered by the trustee reduce that number. Fighting the loss calculation is usually the highest-value work in the case.
We coordinate the criminal case and the bankruptcy case as one matter. Every filing, every amended schedule, every Rule 2004 examination, and every answer at the 341 meeting is sworn testimony that a prosecutor can use. Debtors who try to fix the civil problem alone routinely make the criminal problem worse.
We intervene before the referral hardens. The window between a trustee's questions and a completed referral package is the point of maximum influence. Scoped document production, a considered response to the trustee, and in some cases a voluntary correction can change whether the U.S. Attorney's Office takes the case at all.
We stop the document problem immediately. The first instruction in any bankruptcy fraud matter is preservation. Nothing gets deleted, nothing gets cleaned up, nothing gets reorganized. 18 U.S.C. § 1519 turns tidying into a twenty-year count.
We build the intent record. What the debtor was asked, what the debtor understood, what the preparer was given, and what was disclosed elsewhere in the filing. That record is what separates an error from a fraud, and it is assembled from documents, not from argument.
We litigate the loss number. Asset recoveries, valuation evidence, and the distinction between total debt and creditor harm are argued with a forensic record.
If a bankruptcy trustee has referred your case, if you have received a grand jury subpoena or a target letter, or if federal agents have contacted you about a bankruptcy filing, call Aaron M. Cohen, 24 hours a day to get help.
No. AMC Defense Law is a federal criminal defense firm. We do not file consumer or business bankruptcy petitions, we do not handle discharge or debt relief work, and we do not provide credit counseling. We defend people and companies accused of committing a crime in connection with a bankruptcy case. If you need to file, you need a bankruptcy attorney, not this firm.
18 U.S.C. § 152 lists nine separate offenses, and each is its own count. Concealing property of the estate. Making a false oath or account. Making a false declaration under penalty of perjury. Filing a false proof of claim. Fraudulently receiving property from a debtor. Bribery or extortion connected to the case. Transferring or concealing property in contemplation of a filing. Concealing, destroying, or falsifying documents relating to the debtor's affairs. Withholding records from the trustee. 18 U.S.C. § 157 adds a separate offense for filing a petition or a document in a bankruptcy case as part of a scheme to defraud.
An honest omission is not a crime. Every offense under § 152 requires that the act be knowing and fraudulent. Bankruptcy schedules are long, the Statement of Financial Affairs asks about years of history, and errors are common. The question is whether you knew the item belonged on the schedules and left it off to keep it from creditors. Amended schedules filed before anyone raised the issue, records showing the asset was disclosed elsewhere, and reliance on the petition preparer or bankruptcy counsel who assembled the filing all matter to that question. Correcting the record is usually better done early and with criminal counsel involved.
Almost always from inside the bankruptcy case. The Chapter 7 trustee reviews the schedules and the bank records and finds a transfer, a vehicle, or an account that was never listed. A creditor or an ex-spouse writes to the U.S. Trustee. An answer at the 341 meeting of creditors, given under oath, conflicts with a tax return. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3057, a bankruptcy judge, receiver, or trustee who has reasonable grounds to believe a violation occurred is required to report the facts to the United States Attorney. That referral is not discretionary, which is why civil bankruptcy problems become criminal problems faster than debtors expect.
Probably not, and this is the trap that catches people. 18 U.S.C. § 3284 treats concealment of a debtor's assets as a continuing offense and provides that the limitations period does not begin to run until the debtor has been finally discharged or a discharge has been denied. A concealment that occurred at the filing in 2021, with a discharge in 2023, can be charged into 2028. Do not assume time has protected you.
Yes. 18 U.S.C. § 152(7) reaches a transfer or concealment of property made in contemplation of a bankruptcy case, before any petition is filed. Deeding a property to a relative, moving funds to a family member's account, or retitling a vehicle in the months before a filing is exactly the pattern trustees look for and prosecutors charge. Ordinary pre-filing planning done on the advice of counsel is lawful. Timing, consideration, and what you told your bankruptcy lawyer are what separate the two.
The two tracks run at once and each one damages the other. A false oath supports denial of discharge under 11 U.S.C. § 727(a)(4), and a discharge already granted can be revoked under 11 U.S.C. § 727(d). Meanwhile everything you filed, every answer at the 341 meeting, and every Rule 2004 examination transcript is sworn testimony that the government can use in the criminal case. Anything you say in the bankruptcy proceeding to fix the civil problem can become evidence in the criminal one. The two cases have to be managed as a single strategy.
Each count under 18 U.S.C. §§ 152, 153, and 157 carries up to 5 years. A count under 18 U.S.C. § 1519 for destroying or falsifying records carries up to 20 years, which is why document destruction is the single most damaging thing a debtor can do once a case is open. Actual sentences are set by the federal sentencing guidelines under U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1, where loss drives the offense level. In bankruptcy fraud, loss is generally measured by the value of the concealed asset or the amount creditors lost because of the concealment, not the total debt in the case. That distinction is often the difference between probation and prison, and it is worth fighting.
It can, but not automatically. You signed the schedules under penalty of perjury, and prosecutors argue that signing without reading is not a defense. A reliance defense turns on what you told the preparer, what documents you gave them, and whether you had reason to know the filing was wrong. It is a real defense and we develop it in detail, including the preparer's file and billing records. Note that it can also expose the preparer, which changes the strategy and sometimes the alignment of interests.
No. Decline politely and call counsel. By the time the FBI or an agent from the U.S. Trustee's program asks for an interview, they have your petition, your schedules, your 341 transcript, your bank records, and the trustee's analysis. Any statement that conflicts with those documents becomes a separate false statement count under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, carrying its own 5-year exposure. There is no version of that interview that helps you without counsel present.
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