New Jersey Theft & Fraud Attorney

Shoplifting is the stealing of merchandise from a store. While stealing less than $200 in merchandise is a disorderly persons offense in New Jersey (the equivalent of a misdemeanor in other states), stealing $200 or more in merchandise is an indictable offense (the equivalent of a felony) and carries much harsher penalties.

Burglary involves breaking into a structure to steal money or property from the owner. Strictly speaking, one does not have to take anything from the structure to be charged with burglary, as the act of unlawfully entering the structure is a crime on its own. Using a weapon or explosives during a burglary can significantly increase the potential penalties a defendant faces, and the same is true for making threats or injuring someone.

Robbery is when someone takes money or other property directly off someone’s person, usually by threatening them with injury or death. Using a gun or other weapon during a robbery can increase the severity of the charges, even if the gun was not loaded or there was no intent to injure anyone.

Carjacking is not the same as stealing someone’s car. Under New Jersey law, carjacking is the crime of using force or the threat of injury to steal someone’s car while they are operating it. Forcing someone to drive you somewhere by threatening them while you are in their car can also be considered carjacking.

Grand theft covers a wide range of crimes, but it generally involves stealing more than $200 worth of merchandise from a business. The severity of the penalties you may face for grand theft depend on the specific theft crime you are charged with, the value of the items you are alleged to have stolen, your prior criminal history (if any), and whether you are accused of using threats or violence to commit the theft.

Theft by deception is the taking of money or goods through deceptive means. Examples of theft by deception include pretending to raise money for charity, lying about the value of an item, and making false promises with regard to how the money will be spent.

Extortion is the crime of using threats, intimidation, blackmail, or similar means to coerce someone into handing over money or property. Threatening someone’s reputation can also be considered extortion, even if you did not directly threaten someone with physical injury.

Theft of services is when someone uses deceptive means to obtain some sort of “service” without paying for it. “Services” is a broad term covering everything from a contractor’s labor and hotel rooms to water and power service through a utility. A common example of theft of services is stealing someone else’s cable TV signal without paying for it. One thing to note about theft of services is that it requires some form of deception to be considered a crime. If someone just gives you some type of service without demanding payment, it’s not considered theft of services.

Receiving property from someone with the knowledge or reasonable belief that it has been stolen is a crime in New Jersey.

Healthcare fraud covers things like billing for medical services that weren’t performed, performing unnecessary services, improperly coding services when billing programs like Medicare or Medicaid, and poor medical care that amounts to neglect. Attempting to defraud federal programs like Medicare or Medicaid can be a federal offense, and federal crimes may carry harsher penalties than state crimes.

Tax fraud is when someone tries to cheat on their taxes by not reporting income, claiming false deductions, claiming personal expenses as business expenses, and so on. Tax fraud can occur at both the state and federal levels.

Credit card fraud includes acts like using a stolen card to make purchases, pretending to be the owner of someone else’s card to make purchases without the owner’s consent, and taking money from someone’s bank account using a stolen card.

Bank fraud is another offense that covers many different acts, including false accounting practices, check fraud, skimming someone’s credit card number during a transaction, kiting checks, and providing false information on a loan application.
Money laundering– Money laundering is the act of disguising money earned from illegal activities as legitimate income. In some cases, money laundering is a federal crime, which carries much harsher penalties.

Money laundering is the act of disguising money earned from illegal activities as legitimate income. In some cases, money laundering is a federal crime, which carries much harsher penalties.