18 U.S.C. § 1351
Section 1351 · Fraud in foreign labor contracting
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 8 court decisions — leading case United States v. Lipscomb (2002)
Most recently applied in United States v. Bart (April 2018)
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.
(a) Work Inside the United States.—Whoever knowingly and with intent to defraud recruits, solicits, or hires a person outside the United States or causes another person to recruit, solicit, or hire a person outside the United States, or attempts to do so, for purposes of employment in the United States by means of materially false or fraudulent pretenses, representations or promises regarding that employment shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both.
(b) Work Outside the United States.—Whoever knowingly and with intent to defraud recruits, solicits, or hires a person outside the United States or causes another person to recruit, solicit, or hire a person outside the United States, or attempts to do so, for purposes of employment performed on a United States Government contract performed outside the United States, or on a United States military installation or mission outside the United States or other property or premises outside the United States owned or controlled by the United States Government, by means of materially false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises regarding that employment, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
2013—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 112–239, §1706(a)(1), which directed substitution of “(a) Work Inside the United States.—Whoever knowingly and with intent to defraud recruits, solicits, or hires a person outside the United States or causes another person to recruit, solicit, or hire a person outside the United States, or attempts to do so,” for “Whoever knowingly and with the intent to defraud recruits, solicits or hires a person outside the United States”, was executed by making the substitution for “Whoever knowingly and with intent to defraud recruits, solicits or hires a person outside the United States” to reflect the probable intent of Congress.
Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 112–239, §1706(a)(2), added subsec. (b).
Effective Date of 2013 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 112–239 effective Jan. 2, 2013 and applicable to conduct taking place on or after Jan. 2, 2013, see section 7104d(c)(3) of Title 22, Foreign Relations and Intercourse.