Federal ACH Fraud Charges

Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our goal is to give you the reality of federal ACH fraud charges - not the sanitized version that government websites present, not the oversimplified explanations from compliance departments, but the actual truth about what happens when the federal government decides to prosecute you for electronic funds transfer fraud.

The ACH network processed over $80 trillion in transactions last year. Every single one of those transfers created a digital record that federal prosecutors can and will use. If your name is attached to any transfer that the government later decides was fraudulent, you are now a potential federal defendant. It does not matter if you were the mastermind or the person who unknowingly processed the paperwork.

Here is the reality that nobody tells you: federal prosecutors calculate your prison sentence based on the TOTAL losses of the scheme - not what you personally took, not what you knew about, not what you benefited from. If you processed transactions in a $5 million fraud scheme and only handled $50,000 of it, your federal sentencing guidelines are calculated on that $5 million figure. This is not a technicality. This is how federal sentencing actually works.

How Federal ACH Fraud Charges Actually Work

The federal government has multiple weapons to prosecute ACH fraud. Wire fraud under 18 USC Section 1343 carries up to 20 years in federal prison per count. Bank fraud under 18 USC Section 1344 can mean 30 years if a financial institution was involved. Money laundering adds another layer. Conspiracy charges under 18 USC Section 371 or 1349 can be stacked on top of everything else. And heres the thing - each of these charges can run consecutively, meaning the time adds up.

What makes ACH fraud charges particuarly dangerous is how prosecutors build there case. Every electronic transfer creates a paper trail that never goes away. Your bank maintains records for years. NACHA, the organization that runs the ACH network, has its own documentation requirements. When the FBI starts investigating, they dont just look at one transaction - they trace every transfer you touched, every account you accessed, every instruction you gave or recieved.

The Automated Clearing House system was designed for efficiency and record-keeping. These same features that make electronic banking convenient also make it a prosecutors dream. Transaction timestamps are accurate to the second. Account holder information is verified. Routing numbers identify exactly which institutions handled each transfer. When investigators pull records, they get a complete picture of money movement that would have been impossible to reconstruct in the era of paper checks.

Federal prosecutors have a 90% plus conviction rate. They dont file charges unless theyre confident they will win. By the time you learn you are being investigated, theyve probably been building a case for months or even years. The grand jury process that produces your indictment is entirely one-sided - only the prosecution presents evidence, and grand juries return indictments in the vast majority of cases.

The Money Mule Trap That Nobody Warns You About

Heres were it gets truely disturbing. You dont have to know you are participating in fraud to be convicted of federal crimes. The FBI defines a money mule as someone who recieves and moves money that came from fraud victims. Some money mules know what they are doing. Many dont. It doesnt matter - acting as a money mule is illegal and punishable even if you are completly unaware you are committing a crime.

Think about how this actualy plays out. Someone contacts you about a job opportunity. Maybe its processing payments for a company. Maybe its recieving funds and forwarding them for a fee. The money shows up in your bank account via ACH transfer. You send it along as instructed. What you didnt know was that the money came from a romance scam, a business email compromise, or some other fraud scheme. Now you are a federal defendant.

In June 2025, a New Jersey man was sentenced to more then six years in federal prison for his role in an elder fraud scheme. He wasnt the one who scammed the elderly victims. He was the one who processed there money. The court didnt care that he claimed not to understand the full scope of the operation. They looked at what he did - recieve fraudulent funds and move them - and thats what he was convicted for.

The pattern repeats accross the country. In 2024, Adedayo John recieved seven years for leading a money laundering ring that processed proceeds from business email compromises and romance scams. But he wasnt the only one convicted. Eleven defendants in total pled guilty. Everyone who touched the money became a federal case file.

In August 2025, an Alabama bank vice president named Angela Holley was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison. She had embezzled over 2.3 million dollars using unauthorized ACH transfers to pay personal bills. The scheme ran for ten years. Every single transaction was documented. The system that made her theft possible was the same system that recorded every piece of evidence prosecutors needed.

What Prosecutors Dont Tell You About Conspiracy Charges

OK so heres the part that destroys peoples understanding of federal law. Conspiracy charges dont require you to personaly execute the fraud. They dont require you to know all the participants. They dont require you to profit substantially. All they require is an agreement to participate in illegal activity and some act in furtherance of that agreement.

Under federal conspiracy law, you are liable for everything every co-conspirator did. Let that sink in. If you agreed to process payments for what you thought was a legitimate business, and that business turned out to be a fraud scheme that stole $5 million, your sentencing guidelines are calculated on that $5 million. Your personal involvement might have been minimal. The sentence wont be.

The willful blindness doctrine makes this even worse. Prosecutors dont need to prove you actualy knew the transactions were fraudulent. They just need to prove you should have known. Deliberate ignorance is treated the same as actual knowledge. If there were red flags you ignored - unusual transaction patterns, requests to forward money to unfamiliar accounts, customers who paid in strange ways - prosecutors will argue you chose not to see what was obvious.

Think about what this means in practice. That customer who paid in odd amounts. The request to split transactions across multiple days. The urgency around certain transfers. In retrospect, these might look like warning signs. At the time, you may have had reasonable explanations for all of them. But prosecutors will present this evidence to a jury and ask why you didnt see what was staring you in the face.

Todd Spodek has seen this pattern in hundreds of cases. Someone gets involved in a business arrangement that seemed legitamate at the time. Maybe they were promised a percentage of transactions for processing payments. Maybe they were told the money was for an investment opportunity. When the scheme collapses and federal investigators start making phone calls, that person discovers they are not a witness - they are a target.

The Federal Sentencing Calculation

Most people dont understand how federal sentences are calculated until its too late. The process involves a complex formula that takes your base offense level, adjusts it based on specific offense characteristics, and then cross-references your criminal history to produce a sentencing range.

Heres were the aggregated loss issue becomes critical. The loss table in the federal sentencing guidelines adds offense levels based on the total amount lost in the scheme. Loss of $6,500 adds 2 levels. Loss of $15,000 adds 4 levels. Loss of $40,000 adds 6 levels. By the time you reach $3.5 million, you have added 18 offense levels to your base.

Each offense level adds months or years to your potential sentence. A defendant with no criminal history facing a base offense level of 7 might be looking at 0-6 months. Add those 18 levels for a $3.5 million loss, and suddenly the range is 57-71 months. Add additional enhancements for role in the offense, obstruction, or number of victims, and the numbers climb even higher.

The key point is this - your sentence is based on what the SCHEME lost, not what YOU gained. If you were a minor player who made $5,000 processing transactions in a multi-million dollar fraud, your guidelines still reference those millions. This is the hidden math that destroys defendants who thought their small role would mean small consequences.

The 90 Percent Problem

Heres the kicker that defense attorneys know but dont always explain clearly enough. Federal courts convict defendants more then 90% of the time. Some statistics put it closer to 99%. This isnt becuase everyone charged is guilty. Its because the federal government only files charges when theyve already assembled an overwhelming case.

Federal investigations often run for years before anyone gets charged. The FBI and Secret Service have been reviewing bank records, interviewing witnesses, obtaining email records, and building there case while you went about your normal life. By the time you recieve that target letter or grand jury subpoena, theyve already decided you are guilty. The trial is, in there view, just a formality.

This creates an extremly difficult decision for defendants. Going to trial means risking conviction - and conviction after trial often carries harsher sentences then pleading guilty. The sentencing guidelines include what practitioners call the "trial penalty" - defendants who exercize there constitutional right to a trial and lose often recieve significantly more time then those who accept plea deals early.

At Spodek Law Group, we understand this calculation intimatly. Sometimes fighting is the right choice. Sometimes negotiating the best possible plea is the smarter path. The difference depends on the specific evidence, the prosecutors involed, and the judges tendencies. But every defendant needs to understand what they are facing before making this decision.

When Banks Become Witnesses Against You

Your bank has been reporting on you without your knowledge. Under the Bank Secrecy Act, financial institutions are required to file Suspicious Activity Reports - SARs - whenever they observe transactions that seem unusual. Banks file over 4 million of these reports every year. You are never notified when a SAR is filed about you.

These reports feed directly into federal investigations. When the FBI opens an ACH fraud case, one of the first things they request is any SARs associated with the accounts involved. Your bank didnt just record your transactions - they actively flagged the ones that looked suspicious and sent detailed reports to federal authorities explaining why.

The cooperation trap is real. Many people think that if they just explain there side of things to investigators, everything will be cleared up. But every statement you make becomes evidence. If you say something that later contradicts bank records or other evidence, prosecutors will use that inconsistency against you. If you admit to processing transactions you shouldnt have touched, youve just helped build there case.

Bank employees are trained to identify suspicious patterns. Multiple ACH transfers to new recipients. Transactions just below reporting thresholds. Account activity that doesnt match your stated business purpose. When they see these patterns, they dont call you to ask questions. They file a report with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. That report goes into a database that federal investigators can search.

Notice the pattern here. You thought your bank was a neutral service provider. In reality, they are required by law to monitor your activity and report anything suspicious. You thought cooperating with investigators would clear your name. In reality, you may have been providing exactly the statements they needed to charge you.

The First 72 Hours After You Are Contacted

What happens in the first three days after you learn about a federal ACH fraud investigation often determines the outcome of the entire case. Most people make critical mistakes during this window that cannot be undone.

Heres were people get confused. They think because they are innocent, they should just answer questions and explain everything. They think calling the investigator back shows good faith. They think looking at account records to prepare answers is helpful. Every single one of these instincts is wrong in a federal investigation.

The moment you learn you are being investigated - whether through a subpoena, a target letter, a knock on your door, or even a phone call from an agent - you need legal representation. Not tommorow. Not after you figure out whats going on. Now. The government has likely been building this case for months. You have hours to avoid making it worse.

Do not talk to investigators without an attorney present. Do not access, modify, or delete any records. Do not contact anyone else who might be involved in the investigation. Do not discuss the case on the phone or in text messages. Each of these actions can result in additional charges - obstruction of justice, evidence tampering, witness tampering - that carry there own severe penalties.

Defenses That Actually Work

Despite everything Ive described, federal ACH fraud charges can be fought. The question is understanding which defenses have real traction and which are fantasies that prosecutors will destroy.

Lack of intent remains the most powerful defense in fraud cases. The government must prove you specificaly intended to defraud - that you knew the scheme was fraudulent and participated anyway. If your attorney can demonstrate that you genuinly believed the transactions were legitimate, that you had no reason to suspect fraud, and that you didnt benefit in ways that suggest criminal knowledge, the intent element becomes much harder for prosecutors to prove.

The good faith defense works along similar lines. If you acted based on advice from attorneys, accountants, or other professionals who told you the activity was legal, this can negate the intent requirement. Documentation matters here. Written opinions, email correspondance, and records of professional consultations all strengthen this defense.

Challenging the evidence chain also produces results. Federal cases often involve complex financial records, electronic data, and expert testimony. Defense attorneys who understand how ACH systems work can identify gaps in the governments proof. Maybe the timing doesnt match up. Maybe the account access records show someone else made the transfers. Maybe the governments loss calculations are inflated or based on flawed assumptions.

At Spodek Law Group, we have handled cases were the government thought they had everything locked down - until we showed that our client couldnt have accessed the accounts in question, or that the supposed co-conspirators never actualy communicated with our client, or that the governments timeline was impossible given the evidence.

Asset Forfeiture - The Financial Destruction You Dont See Coming

Even before your case goes to trial, the government can seize your assets. Federal asset forfeiture laws allow prosecutors to freeze bank accounts, seize property, and take vehicles if they can show a connection to the alleged fraud. This happens through civil forfeiture proceedings that run parallel to your criminal case.

The practical effect is devastating. Your bank accounts get frozen while you are trying to hire an attorney. Your business accounts become inaccessible while you are trying to maintain operations. The assets you would use to fund your defense are suddenly unavailable. Many defendants find themselves forced to rely on public defenders not because they lack resources, but because the government has already taken those resources.

Restitution orders compound the damage. If you are convicted, the court will order you to pay back the total losses - not just what you personally took. Those aggregated loss numbers that drove up your sentence now become a debt that follows you for the rest of your life. Federal restitution orders are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. They survive until paid in full.

Why Time Is Your Most Dangerous Enemy

The window for effective defense shrinks with every day that passes. Evidence degrades. Witnesses memories fade. Bank records that might prove your innocence get purged after retention periods expire. The sooner you engage qualified federal defense counsel, the more options you have.

Federal prosecutors have been working on your case for months or years. You cannot afford to give them more time while you figure out what to do.

If you are reading this becuase youve recieved a target letter, a grand jury subpoena, or a visit from federal agents, the clock is already running. If you are reading this because you think you might be connected to transactions that could be questioned, you have an opportunity to prepare before the government makes its move.

Either way, the next 48 hours matter more then you realize.

They had years to build there case. You have days to respond. Use them wisely. Call Spodek Law Group at 212-300-5196 - the consultation costs nothing, and waiting costs everything.