18 U.S.C. § 1861
Section 1861 · Deception of prospective purchasers
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 31 court decisions — leading case United States v. Rosenthal (1986)
Most recently applied in United States v. Isac Schwarzbaum (January 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, for a reward paid or promised to him in that behalf, undertakes to locate for an intending purchaser, settler, or entryman any public lands of the United States subject to disposition under the public-land laws, and who willfully and falsely represents to such intending purchaser, settler, or entryman that any tract of land shown to him is public land of the United States subject to sale, settlement, or entry, or that it is of a particular surveyed description, with intent to deceive the person to whom such representation is made, or who, in reckless disregard of the truth, falsely represents to any such person that any tract of land shown to him is public land of the United States subject to sale, settlement, or entry, or that it is of a particular surveyed description, thereby deceiving the person to whom such representation is made, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, 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., §114 (Feb. 23, 1917, ch. 115, 39 Stat. 936).
Words “deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and” which preceded “punished” were omitted as unnecessary in view of definitive section 1 of this title.
Minor changes were made in phraseology.
References in Text
The public-land laws, referred to in text, are classified generally to Title 43, Public Lands.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $300”.