18 U.S.C. § 1002
Section 1002 · Possession of false papers to defraud United States
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 27 court decisions — leading case United States v. Latroy D. Ray, Johnny Lee May, and Boyd McChristion (1987)
Most recently applied in Jabr v. Ohio Dept. of Job & Family Servs. (July 2025)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Whoever, knowingly and with intent to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof, possesses any false, altered, forged, or counterfeited writing or document for the purpose of enabling another to obtain from the United States, or from any agency, officer or agent thereof, any sum of money, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §74 (Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 321, §30, 35 Stat. 1094).
Words “or any agency thereof” after “United States” and word “agency” after “any” and before “officer,” were inserted to eliminate any possible ambiguity as to scope of section. (See definition of “agency” in section 6 of this title.)
The maximum fine of “$10,000” was substituted for “$500” in order to conform punishment provisions to those of comparable sections. (See section 1001 of this title.)
Minor verbal change was made.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $10,000”.
Cross References
Contracts, deeds, and powers of attorney, see section 495 of this title.